Afdera ( Afar: ''Afxeera'') is one of the woredas, in the

Afar Region The Afar Region (; ; ), formerly known as Region 2, is a Regions of Ethiopia, regional state in northeastern Ethiopia and the homeland of the Afar people. Its capital is the planned city of Semera, which lies on the paved Awash, Ethiopia, Awash� ...

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

. It is named after the saline Lake Afdera, located in the southern part of the Afar Depression. Part of the Administrative Zone 2, Afdera is bordered on the southwest by the Administrative Zone 4, on the west by Erebti and Abala, on the north by Berhale, on the northeast by

Eritrea Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa, with its capital and largest city being Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia in the Eritrea–Ethiopia border, south, Sudan in the west, and Dj ...

, and on the southeast by Administrative Zone 1. The largest town of this woreda is Afdera.

Overview

The highest peak in Afdera is Mount Mallahle (1875 meters); other mountains in this

woreda Districts of Ethiopia, also called woredas (; ''woreda''), are the third level of the administrative divisions of Ethiopia – after ''List of zones of Ethiopia, zones'' and the ''Regions of Ethiopia, regional states''. These districts are f ...

include Erta Ale and Borawli. Mining is the principal industry in this woreda. The best known resource extracted is

salt In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as r ...

; according to the Afar Regional Mining and Energy Office, there are 300 active land grants around Lake Afdera, which the Office reports creates 1,800 permanent and over 40,000 part-time jobs. An all-weather road constructed in the 1990s connects this woreda to the main Awash - Asseb highway. About 90 kilometers of this gravel road, connecting Afdera to Serdo, was completed in late January 2009 at a cost of 387 million Birr. A spokesman for the Ethiopian Roads Authority stated that since it links with the port in

Djibouti City Djibouti (also called Djibouti City and Jibuti in early Western texts) is the capital city of the Djibouti, Republic of Djibouti. It is located in the coastal Djibouti Region on the Gulf of Tadjoura. Djibouti has a population of around 780,000 ...

, the upgraded road would have great significance for tourism and import-export trade exchange. At the Tio waterhole, near the southeastern border with Administrative Zone 4, L.M. Nesbitt located the 1884 massacre of the Italian expedition led by Gustavo Bianchi and Giuseppe Maria Giulietti. Nesbitt was prevented from erecting a cairn to mark the site by the Afars, who believed this was part of a

blood feud A feud , also known in more extreme cases as a blood feud, vendetta, faida, clan war, gang war, private war, or mob war, is a long-running argument or fight, often between social groups of people, especially family, families or clans. Feuds begin ...

Demographics

Based on the 2007 Census conducted by the

Central Statistical Agency The Central Statistical Agency, also known as the Ethiopian Statistical Service (ESS; Amharic: የኢትዮጵያ ስታቲስቲክስ አገልግሎት), is an Ethiopian government agency designated to provide all surveys and censuses for that ...

of Ethiopia (CSA), this woreda has a total population of 32,225, of whom 18,191 are men and 14,034 women; with an area of 7,435.45 square kilometers, Afdera has a population density of 4.33. While 3,578 or 11.10% are urban inhabitants, a further 4,402 or 13.66% are pastoralists. A total of 4,803 households were counted in this woreda, which results in an average of 6.7 persons to a household, and 4,887 housing units. 98.6% of the population said they were

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

, and 1.34% were Orthodox Christians.Census 2007 Tables: Afar Region
, Tables 2.1, 2.4, 2.5, 3.1, 3.2 and 3.4.

Notes

{{Districts of the Afar Region Districts of Afar Region