Located in the Fafan Zone with 75 km (37 mi) west of the border with Somaliland,[2][3] the city has an elevation of 1,634 metres above sea level.

The name Jigjiga is said to come from the onomatopoeic word jig-jig, representing the rumbling sounds made by an earthquake, or the noise from water wells on the outskirts of the city.

[11] Jijiga was later mentioned by British traveler Richard Francis Burton in 1854, who reports that it was a centre of wells for pastoralists of the local Somali (Jidwaq) clan on the caravan route to Berbera.

[14] In 1887, the Ethiopian Empire under Menelik II invaded and conquered the ancient city of Harar and soon after announced a programme of ambitious expansion and colonialism to the European powers.

The escalating frequency and violence of the raids resulted in Somalis consolidating behind the Dervish movement under the lead of Sayyid Mohamed Abdullah Hassan.

[18] Subsequently, the anti-colonial Dervish Movement led by Sayid Mohamed Abdullah Hassan had its first major battle when it attacked the Ethiopian forces occupying Jigjiga several to free livestock that had been looted from the local population during Abyssinian raids.

[24] Sayid Mohameds Dervish attack greatly shook the Ethiopians, and resulted in them coordinating large scale joint military operations with the British Empire against the Somalis fighters.

[25] Governor Tahir set up a native security forces to protect the town which consisted mainly of Somalis and Harari people as the Dervish fighters had begun its activities in the region.

[28] After Lij Lyasu's overthrowal and the subsequent tensions in the town, the Somali population abandoned Jigjiga, leaving behind only Amhara settlers, who were mostly soldiers.

[20] Due to widespread Somali hostility in the Ogaden, the town marked the effective boundary of imperial presence in the region.

[20] During the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, Jijiga served for some time as Dejazmach Nasibu Emmanual's headquarters and a supply center for the Ethiopian army.

[35] In the town of Jijiga, incoming Ethiopian authorities instructed the Somali Youth League (SYL) to remove their flag, as they had declared both the party and its emblem as unlawful.

[36] In the early stage of the Ethiopian Revolution individual units from the Third Division put the local governor under house arrest around 13 April 1974.

[40] Ethnic groups of Jigjiga (2007)[41] Based on the 2007 Census conducted by the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA), Jijiga had a total population of 203,588 of whom 109,138 were men and 94,450 women.

In his memoirs of his homeland, Nega Mezlekia describes Jijiga as sitting "on the edge of a vast, unmitigated valley on the bottom of Mount Kramanda the beginning of the mighty Ethiopian highlands, with vast lush greenery in sight, rolling hills and plains dotted with many farms in all directions the soaring Eastern Ethiopian Highlands slowly climbing west, the very common tall grassland tree used as shelter by the wandering hyena, and the inevitable sacred tree in every compound, trees in this area of the Somali region reach great heights with the help of generous rainfall year-round, the native Somalis in the area would use this area as a dry season grazing land for all the noble tribes of the land.

The city is surrounded by rocky tall green mountains on all sides save the north all the way past nearby Harar all the way to Addis, which is open as far as the eye can see.