[2] Abala is an important trading center in the area for goats, with its market day on Thursday, and supplied by pastoralists from as far away as Afdera, Erebti and Teru woredas.

[3] Werner Munzinger visited Abala in June 1867 (which he calls Ala), and mentions that it was the home of Hodeli, chief of the Dumhoeta Afar, as well as the location of a weekly market on Saturday primarily in salt.

[4] Records at the Nordic Africa Institute website mention the existence of an English mission school, and a church dedicated to Saint Michael.

The contract for a second road 109 kilometers in length, from Shaigubi through Male to Dalol, was awarded to Defence Construction and Engineering Enterprise, a division of the Ministry of Defense, and was worth 185 million Birr.

Witnesses reported that bulldozers had dumped hundreds of bodies into nearby[7] The Afar pastoralists in Abala practice transhumance, during drought periods, to remote areas, especially to the escarpment and highlands of the Tigray Region.