During the Middle Ages, the Dikhil Region was ruled by the
Ifat Sultanate and the
Adal Sultanate. It later formed a part of the
French Somaliland protectorate in the first half of the 20th century. While the region is built in "administrative position Gobad Dikkil" from March 25, 1927, it is only December 21, 1927 a detachment from Djibouti to recognize the region "and Dekkel Gobad" led by the
Arthur Diderrich administrator. Following this mission, a military and administrative is installed at a place called Dikhil March 26, 1928. Become attached to a post "circle of Adaels" December 24, 1930, the sub-prefecture becomes a vicious self-April 9, 1931. It then includes all the southern colony, the Ethiopian border that
French Somaliland. January 19, 1939 has created a "
circle of Ali Sabieh" on the eastern part of the Dikhil. After several changes, this part definitely gets a separate entity in 1958 with the appointment of a specific administrator. Dikhil region takes the appearance it retains until the creation of the
Arta region in 2002. On Asa Ragid site, the material found consists of shell middens from oysters, basalt rhyolite peaks whose dating for older, is at 5000–5800 years BC Also circular stone structures and a
microlithic industry red jasper and obsidian and pottery shards more or less decorated beads and ostrich egg shell. As for the site of Asa Koma (Red Hill) As near
Eyla, he revealed a life towards the end of the third millennium with a population of fishermen who hunted jackal, raised cattle and made pottery decorated with prints and chiseled features of good quality and which shapes and colors are similar to ceramics found in
Sudan. It was discovered in 1989 a burial of an elderly adult and a young woman of 18. Many lithic obsidian and bone tools and beads of ostrich egg shells or shells of the Red Sea. Also animal bones, especially jackals, hippos rarely or gazelles, antelopes and domestic cattle and bones of fish (tilapia and catfish). Spread throughout the country and in more recent times are the cairn housing Graves (hundreds in the north). In one of these mounds in
Balho, we found a fragment of cranium from the early first millennium BC The diversity of these burials attests different periods to which they relate. In 1963 during the first Somali-Ethiopian war a terrible massacre was perpetrated by the Ethiopian soldiers in Aysha, mainly populated by the
Gadabursi and
Issa Somali. Among the latter, those who succeeded in fleeing arrived at
Dikhil and
Ali Sabieh and in 1977 during the
Ogaden War between Somalia and Ethiopia, a second wave of populations fleeing hostilities took refuge in Dikhil and Ali Sabieh. ==Geography==