important strategic position in the Gadabuursi country: "The position of the Samawé ruins would favour a supposition that some power holding Harar, and having its northern boundary along the hills which wall in the southern side of the Harrawa valley, had built the fort to command the Gáwa Pass, which is one of the great routes from the Gadabursi country up on to the Marar Prairie." Richard Francis Burton describes the Gadabuursi and Geri Somali clans as extending to within sight of Harar. The Gadabuursi, along with the Geri, Issa and Karanle Hawiye represent the most native and indigenous Somali tribes in Harar. Elisée Reclus (1886) describes one of the ancient routes from Harar to Zeila ascending the Darmi Pass which crosses the heartland of the Gadabuursi country: "Two routes, often blocked by the inroads of plundering hordes, lead from Harrar to Zeila. One crosses a ridge to the north of the town, thence redescending into the basin of the Awash by the Galdessa Pass and valley, and from this point running towards the sea through Issa territory, which is crossed by a chain of trachytic rocks trending southwards. The other and more direct but more rugged route ascends north-eastwards towards the Darmi Pass, crossing the country of the Gadibursis or Gudabursis. The town of Zeila lies south of a small archipelago of islets and reefs on a point of the coast where it is hemmed in by the Gadibursi tribe. It has two ports, one frequented by boats but impracticable for ships, whilst the other, not far south of the town, although very narrow, is from 26 to 33 feet deep, and affords safe shelter to large craft." The Gadabuursi inhabit the Gursum woreda where they are the majority and the Jijiga woreda where they make up a large part of the Fafan Zone. They partially inhabit Ayesha, Shinile, Erer and Afdem woreda's.A report for the BRIDGES Project The Role of Education in Livelihoods in the Somali Region of Ethiopia Elanor Jackson. June 2011 http://fic.tufts.edu/assets/Education-Somali-Ethiopia.pdf "In the Afdem in 1989–91 there was also a clan clash between the Issa and Gedabiersay(Gadabursi)" p. 92 The Gadabuursi also reside along the northeastern fringe of the chartered city-state of Dire Dawa, which borders the Dembel district, but also in the city itself. The Gadabuursi are the second largest sub-clan within the borders of the Somali Region of Ethiopia based on the Ethiopian