Arero is a

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 ...

Oromia Region Oromia (, ) is a Regions of Ethiopia, regional state in Ethiopia and the homeland of the Oromo people. Under Article 49 of 1995 Constitution of Ethiopia, Ethiopian Constitution, the capital of Oromia is Addis Ababa, also called Finfinne. The ...

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 ...

. Part of the

Borena Zone Borena ( Oromo: ''Boorana'') is a zone in Oromia Region of Ethiopia. Borena is named after one of the two major subgroups of the Oromo people. Borena is bordered on the south by Kenya, on the west by the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peo ...

, Arero is bordered on the southwest by

Dire Dire may refer to: Places * Diré, a town in Tombouctou Region, Mali * Diré Cercle, an administrative subdivision of Tombouctou Region, Mali * Dire (Aanaa), a woreda in Oromia Region, Ethiopia People * Dire Tladi (born 1975), South African law p ...

, on the west by

Yabelo Yabelo () is a town in southern Ethiopia. An alternative name for this town is Obda, which is also the name of a nearby mountain.Bule Hora, on the northeast by the Guji Zone, on the east by the

Somali Region The Somali Region (, , ), also known as Soomaali Galbeed () and officially the Somali Regional State, is a Regions of Ethiopia, regional state in eastern Ethiopia. It is the largest region of Ethiopia. The state borders the Ethiopian regions ...

, and on the south by

Moyale Moyale is a city situated on the border between Ethiopia and Kenya. In Ethiopia, it serves as the administrative centre for two Ethiopian woredas: Moyale of the Oromia Region and Moyale of the Somali Region. In Kenya, it is the largest tow ...

; the

Dawa River Dawa or Dawah may refer to: Places China *Dawa, Jilin, in Ningjiang District, Songyuan *Dawa County (大洼县), Panjin, Liaoning *Dawa, Dawa County, Liaoning *Dawa, Changtu County, Liaoning *Dawa Chik, One Month in (Tibetan) Other countrie ...

, the only river in this woreda, separates Arero from Odo Shakiso and Liben. Towns in Arero include Meta Gefersa.

Overview

The altitude of this woreda ranges from 750 to 1700 meters above sea level. A survey of the land in this woreda shows that 20% is arable (1.7% was under cultivation), 40.3% pasture, 1.6%

forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...

, and the remaining 38.1% is considered swampy, mountainous or otherwise unusable.''Socio-economic profile of the Borena Zone''
Government of Oromia Region (last accessed 1 August 2006) The forested area includes Arero State Forest, which covers about 10.65 square kilometers and is the most southerly of the high forests of Ethiopia, one of the few places in the Borena Zone with well-grown trees of ''

Juniperus procera ''Juniperus procera'' (known by the common English names African juniper, African pencil-cedar, East African juniper, East African-cedar, and Kenya-cedar) is a coniferous tree native to mountainous areas in Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. It i ...

''.

Teff ''Teff'' (), also known as ''Eragrostis tef'', Williams lovegrass, or annual bunch grass, is an annual grass, a species of lovegrass native to Ethiopia, where it first originated in the Ethiopian Highlands. It is cultivated for its edible seed ...

corn Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout Poaceae, grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago ...

, haricot bean and

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

are important crops in this woreda. Industry in the woreda includes 2

grain mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separate ...

s; deposits of

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

molybdenum Molybdenum is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Mo (from Neo-Latin ''molybdaenum'') and atomic number 42. The name derived from Ancient Greek ', meaning lead, since its ores were confused with lead ores. Molybdenum minerals hav ...

cobalt Cobalt is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. ...

and

graphite Graphite () is a Crystallinity, crystalline allotrope (form) of the element carbon. It consists of many stacked Layered materials, layers of graphene, typically in excess of hundreds of layers. Graphite occurs naturally and is the most stable ...

are present but have not been commercially developed. There were 11 Farmers Associations with 7624 members and 4 Farmers Service Cooperatives; about 40% of the farmers are

pastoralists Pastoralism is a form of animal husbandry where domesticated animals (known as "livestock") are released onto large vegetated outdoor lands (pastures) for grazing, historically by nomadic people who moved around with their herds. The anima ...

. Arero has 260 kilometers of dry-weather roads, for an average road density of 24 kilometers per 1000 square kilometers. About 33.8% of the urban and 12.5% of the rural population has access to

drinking water Drinking water or potable water is water that is safe for ingestion, either when drunk directly in liquid form or consumed indirectly through food preparation. It is often (but not always) supplied through taps, in which case it is also calle ...

. In April 2005, ethnic conflict between the

Guji Oromo The Guji Oromo are an Oromo clan living Guji Zone in southern Oromia of Ethiopia. They are distinguished by their agro-pastoral lifestyle. According to a population projection from 2007, the total population of the Guji Oromo is above 5 million. ...

and the Gabbra in southern Oromia led to massive displacement of people. An

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

working in the area reported as many as 50,000 people were forced to flee in Hagere Mariam, Yabelo and Arero woredas, and several thousand huts burnt.

Demographics

The 2007 national census reported a total population for this woreda of 48,126, of whom 24,281 were men and 23,845 were women; 3,004 or 6.24% of its population were urban dwellers. The majority of the inhabitants said they practiced traditional beliefs, with 67.73% of the population reporting they observed these beliefs, while 22.67% of the population 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 ...

, 6.82% were

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

and 2.62% practiced

Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church () is the largest of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. One of the few Christian churches in Africa originating before European colonization of the continent, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church dates bac ...

. Based on figures published 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 ...

in 2005, this woreda has an estimated total population of 44,020, of whom 21,679 are men and 22,341 are women; 7,338 or 16.67% of its population are urban dwellers, which is greater than the Zone average of 11.6%. With an estimated area of 10,841.88 square kilometers, Arero has an estimated population density of 4.1 people per square kilometer, which is less than the Zone average of 21.1. The 1994 national census reported a total population for this woreda of 30,800, of whom 15,644 were men and 15,156 women; 4,099 or 13.31% of its population were urban dwellers at the time. (This total also includes an estimate for the inhabitants of several rural

kebele A ward (; ; ) is the smallest administrative unit of Ethiopia: a ward, a neighbourhood or a localized and delimited group of people. Somali word that has meaning of collected people where water is fairly sufficient and available to prolongue thei ...

s, which were not counted; they were estimated to have 9,228 inhabitants, of whom 4,714 were men and 4,514 women.) The largest ethnic group reported in Arero was the

Oromo Oromo may refer to: * Oromo people, an ethnic group of Ethiopia and Kenya * Oromo language, an Afroasiatic language See also * *Orma (clan), Oromo tribe *Oromia Oromia (, ) is a Regions of Ethiopia, regional state in Ethiopia and the homelan ...

(97.23%);

Oromiffa Oromo, historically also called Galla, is an Afroasiatic language belonging to the Cushitic branch, primarily spoken by the Oromo people, native to the Ethiopian state of Oromia; and northern Kenya. It is used as a lingua franca in Oromia and n ...

was spoken as a first language by 98.6% of the inhabitants. The plurality of the inhabitants practiced traditional beliefs, with 39.68% of the population reporting answers in that category, while 22.41% of the population said they were

, 4.04% professed

, 2.35% were

, and 2.3% were

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

.''1994 Population and Housing Census of Ethiopia: Results for Oromia Region'', Vol. 1, part 1
, Tables 2.1, 2.2, 2.13, 2.16, 2.20 (accessed 6 April 2009)

Notes

{{Districts of the Oromia Region Districts of Oromia