Ayesha (Italian ''Aiscia'') 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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

. The northernmost woreda of the Shinile Zone, Ayesha is bordered on the south by Dembel, on the west by Shinile, on the north by

Djibouti Djibouti, officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden to the east. The country has an area ...

, on the east by

Somaliland Somaliland, officially the Republic of Somaliland, is an List of states with limited recognition, unrecognised country in the Horn of Africa. It is located in the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden and bordered by Djibouti to the northwest, E ...

, and on the southeast by the Jijiga Zone. Towns in Ayesha include Ayesha, Dewele, Lasarat and Mermedebis. The average elevation in this woreda is 766 meters above sea level. , Ayesha has 180 kilometers of all-weather gravel road and 287.2 kilometers of community roads; about 20% of the total population has access to drinking water. The tracks of the Addis Ababa - Djibouti Railway and Ethio-Djibouti Railways cross this woreda, following the canyon cut by the

Ayesha River Ayesha River is an intermittent river found in Eastern Ethiopia. Its drainage basin is part of the East African Rift The East African Rift (EAR) or East African Rift System (EARS) is an active continental rift zone in East Africa. The EAR beg ...

in a southern direction, then turning southwest into Shinile just before reaching Adigale. In mid April 2006, floods were reported to have displaced up to 3,000 people in Laserat. According to woreda officials, the floods destroyed more than 190 houses and killed as many as 500 head of livestock. The Ethiopian De-mining Office reported in November 2008 that it had cleared land mines planted in Ayesha as part of the four million square meters of land the office had cleared in the Somali Region.

Demographics

Based on the 2017 Census conducted by the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA), this woreda has a total population of 75,215, of whom 39,089 are men and 36,126 women. While 10,726 are urban inhabitants, a further 64,489 were

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 ...

. Based on the 2007 Census conducted by the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA), this woreda has a total population of 58,086, of whom 31,241 are men and 26,845 women. While 7,970 or 13.72% are urban inhabitants, a further 37,339 or 64.28% are pastoralists. 96.3% 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 2.68% said they practiced Orthodox Christian. The 1994 national census reported a total population for this woreda of 46,605, of whom 23,305 were men and 23,300 were women; 6,577 or 14.11% were urban inhabitants. The largest ethnic group reported in Ayesha was the

Somali people The Somali people (, Wadaad: , Arabic: ) are a Cushitic ethnic group and nation native to the Somali Peninsula. who share a common ancestry, culture and history. The East Cushitic Somali language is the shared mother tongue of ethnic Som ...

of the Issa inhabitants (95.99%).''1994 Population and Housing Census of Ethiopia: Results for Somali Region'', Vol. 1
, Tables 2.1, 2.7, 2.12,

Notes

{{Districts of the Somali Region Districts of Somali Region