Tessenei, Eritrea
Tessenei is located 45 kilometer from the Sudanese border and approximately 115 kilometers beyond Barentu. Tessenei is a population center for the western area, a frontier town with about 18,000 people from various ethnic backgrounds. The market place buzzes with nomadic traders, Tigrayan merchants and returnees from Sudan. The main square in front of the mosque is abuzz with many kinds of different trade, including tailors, cafés, bars and other shops.
There is a busy exchange market where the Saudi Rial and the Sudanese Pound are exchanged to Eritrean Nakfa’s and the food in the ‘souk’ area has a distinctly Sudanese flavor. Tessenei is one of the reception points for returnees from the refugee camps in the Sudan who then proceed to other locations.
On the outskirts of Tessenei to the north are a couple of hills from which there are exceptional views of the lowlands and the mountains inside Sudan. 10 kilometers to the west of the city is the Barattolo cotton plantation at Adi Ghider where Hedareb tribes and 1500 ex-fighters and their families farm cotton, sesame and sorghum. Adi Ghider is an old Italian frontier village, still containing a few Italian relics, but the village was extensively sacked by the Ethiopian forces in 2001 in their campaign to sabotage the Eritrean economy.
Epic Eritrea Culture & Adventure Route © Monika Newbound
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