Dire Dawa, Ethiopia uses Africa/Addis_Ababa, currently EAT (UTC+03:00). No clock changes are scheduled in the next 12 months.
Dire Dawa is a city in Ethiopia, with a population of about 343,000. It keeps the same time year-round, with no daylight saving changes.
The band below is your local scale — accent shows when everyone's business hours overlap. Add or remove a city on the left and this updates too.
Written for people arriving, calling in, or planning a trip around the time difference.
Dire Dawa is in eastern Ethiopia and grew up around the railway between Addis Ababa and Djibouti. It is unusual in being clearly divided between Kezira, the planned European-built quarter around the station, and Magala, the older Ethiopian and Somali market quarter across the seasonal riverbed.
The contrast between the two halves of the city is its most interesting feature, and the old railway station is a landmark of the line's history. Harar, a walled city of narrow lanes and a World Heritage site famous for its hyena feeding, lies a short drive up into the hills and is the main regional draw.
The two quarters are walkable individually, with bajaj three-wheelers between them. The road up to Harar takes around an hour, and the airport connects to Addis Ababa.
The cooler months are much the most comfortable, as Dire Dawa sits lower and hotter than the Ethiopian highlands. Rainfall is limited and concentrated in two short seasons.
Ethiopia uses the ETB, calling code +251.
Ethiopia uses the birr, and Amharic, Oromo and Somali are all widely spoken here with English used in the tourist trade. Ethiopia follows its own calendar and clock, which is worth confirming when arranging times, and cash is needed for most transactions.
