Raya Azebo

Raya Azebo ራያ ዓዘቦ
Woreda
Flag
Region	Tigray
Zone	South Tigray
Area
• Total	2,132.83 km2 (823.49 sq mi)
Population  (2007)
• Total	135,870

Parts of this article (those related to the status of Raya Azebo as a woreda due to widespread administrative changes since 2018 and pre-Tigray War) need to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (February 2021)

Raya Azebo (Tigrinya: ራያ ዓዘቦ) is an Ethiopian District or woreda in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Located at the eastern edge of the Ethiopian highlands, the administrative center of this woreda is Mekoni. Other towns in Raya Azebo include Alemata, Weyra Wuha, and Chercher.

History[]

Air raids during the civil war of the 1980s[]

During the Ethiopian Civil War, on 9 September 1989, Chercher was bombed from the air by the Ethiopian National Defence Forces, and 148 people killed, over 100 wounded; on 12 September 1989, the village of Gerarsa (northeast of Mekhoni) was bombed from the air by the Ethiopian National Defence Forces, and four people were wounded.^[1]

Demographics[]

Based on the 2007 national census conducted by the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA), this woreda has a total population of 135,870, an increase of 55.04% over the 1994 census, of whom 67,687 are men and 68,183 women; 16,056 or 11.82% are urban inhabitants. With an area of 2,132.83 square kilometers, Raya Azebo has a population density of 63.70, which is greater than the Zone average of 53.91 persons per square kilometer. A total of 32,360 households were counted in this woreda, resulting in an average of 4.20 persons to a household, and 31,468 housing units. 70.61% of the population said they were Orthodox Christians, and 29.32% were Muslim.^[2]

The 1994 national census reported a total population for this woreda of 87,638 of whom 43,259 were men and 44,379 were women; 8,047 or 9.18% of its population were urban . Tigrinya was spoken as a first language by 85.52%, 11.04% Amharic, 1.83% Oromo, and 1.53% spoke Afar; the remaining 0.08% spoke all other primary languages reported. 69.15% of the population practiced Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, and 30.82% were Muslim. Concerning education, 8.44% of the population were considered literate, which is less than the Zone average of 15.71%; 14.64% of children aged 7–12 were in primary school; 0.9% of the children aged 13–14 were in junior secondary school; and 0.31% of the inhabitants aged 15–18 were in senior secondary school. Concerning sanitary conditions, 56.9% of the urban houses and 13.4% of all houses had access to safe drinking water at the time of the census; 20.6% of the urban and about 4.7% of the total had toilet facilities.^[3]

Population sociology[]

The population comprises several ethnic groups: (1) Tigraians, occupying the major part of the woreda, particularly the escarpment and also the central and northern part of the Raya graben bottom, (2) Oromo form an ancient population group in the Raya graben that surrounding Tigraians – the language is not anymore used on a daily basis; they live in dispersed villages across the wider area between Alamata, Mohoni and Chercher, (3) Afar share settlements on the mountains at the east of the woreda. Unlike neighbouring towns along the main road, Amharic is not used as trade language. The Tigraians and Oromos on the escarpments and in the Raya graben are mainly engaged in smallholder agriculture, often using spate irrigation with floods from the escarpment.^{[citation needed]}

In recent years they have started dry season irrigation agriculture, stimulated by government-established groundwater pumps and by mimicking commercial farms that have been attracted. Settlements are mainly along roads and iron roofed. Tigraians are dominantly Orthodox Christians, though some villages follow Islam. The nearby Afar pastoralists in the Abala and Kalla grabens practice transhumance, during drought periods, to remote areas, especially to the escarpment and highlands of Region Tigray. Movements to Tigray allow the Afar pastoralists to herd their livestock on denser vegetation as well as on standing stubble of croplands.^[4]

2020 woreda reorganisation[]

Between 2018 and 2020, as part of a reform aimed to deepen and strengthen decentralisation, woredas were reorganised, and a new woreda organisation came into existence in Tigray. ^[5] As smaller towns had been growing, they have started providing a range of services (markets, even banks), so that people were travelling to the closest such towns for these services, but continued to have to travel to the formal woreda centre, often in a different direction, for most government administrative services. A huge consultation, involving numerous village meetings, was organised in 2018 and 2019, with heated debates, particularly in the more remote areas. Based on these consultations, woreda Raya Azebo became inoperative and as of early 2020, its territory belongs to the following new woredas:

• Raya Azebo(new, smaller, woreda)
• Chercher woreda

References[]