Filtu (also known as Liben) is one of the

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 ...

s in 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 ...

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

Liben Zone Liben () is a zone in Somali Region of Ethiopia. Liben is bordered on the south by Kenya, on the northwest by the Oromia Region, on the northeast by Afder, and on the southeast by Somalia's federal state of Jubaland. Towns in Liben zone inclu ...

, Filtu is bordered on the south by 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 ...

which separates it from

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 ...

and Udet, on the west by the

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 ...

, on the north and east by the

Ganale Dorya River The Ganale Doria River () (also transliterated as Genale Dorya) is a perennial river in southeastern Ethiopia. Rising in the mountains east of Aleta Wendo, the Ganale flows south and east to join with the Dawa at the border with Somalia to becom ...

which separates it from the

Afder Zone Afder () is one of the eleven Zones of the Somali Region of Ethiopia. Afder is bordered on the southwest by the Ganale Dorya River which separates it from the Liben Zone, on the west by the Oromia Region, on the north by Nogob Zone, on the no ...

, and on the southeast by

Dolo Odo Dolo Addo or Dolo Ado or Dollo Ado () is one of the woredas in the Somali Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Liben Zone, Dolo Ado is located in the angle formed by the confluence of the Ganale Dorya with the Dawa River, and bordered to the northwes ...

. The major town of this woreda is

Filtu Filtu is the capital city of '"Liben Zone"' Filtu (also known as Gindiyeer) is a town in southern Ethiopia. Located in the Liben Zone of the Somali Region, it has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 1252 meters above sea level. It i ...

. The altitude of this woreda ranges from 200 along the Ganale Dorya, to as high as 1500 meters above sea level. Liben is located at the frontier between the traditional territories of the Somali and

Oromo people The Oromo people (, pron. ) are a Cushitic peoples, Cushitic ethnic group native to the Oromia region of Ethiopia and parts of Northern Kenya. They speak the Oromo language (also called ''Afaan Oromoo''), which is part of the Cushitic language ...

s living in the southwestern part of Ethiopia. Accordingly, local groups of both Somali and Oromo nationalities have a vested interest in the control of the relatively rich pastoral resources in the district and therefore have been in conflict over its control.Socio-economic conditions of the population in Liben zone, Ethiopian Somali National Regional State
UNDP Emergencies Unit for Ethiopia report, February 1996 (accessed 10 January 2009) One attempt to resolve the dispute between the two Regions was the October, 2004 referendum held in about 420

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 in 12

s across five zones of the Somali Region. According to the official results of the referendum, about 80% of the disputed areas have fallen under Oromia administration, though there were numerous allegations of voting irregularities in many of them.

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 130,993, of whom 74,537 are men and 56,456 women. While 4,972 or 3.57% are urban inhabitants, a further 92,041 or 70.26% are pastoralists. 99.15% 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 ...

. This woreda is entirely inhabited by sub-clans of the

Hawiye The Hawiye (; ) are one of the principal and largest of the Somali clans, tracing their lineage back to Sheikh Ahmed Bin Abdulrahman Bin Uthman, also known as Sheikh Hawiye, the eponymous figure of the clan. They are considered the earliest do ...

tribe,

Degodia The Degoodi or Degodia (, ) is a Somali clan. They are genealogically related to the other Samaale, but in particular to the Garjante, Gaalje'el, Garre, Masare, Isa (Saransor) and 'Awrmale, with which they share the same ancestor Gardhere Samaale ...

. The 1997 national census reported a total population for this woreda of 112,465, of whom 63,270 were males and 49,195 were females; 5,518 or 4.91% of its population were urban dwellers. The largest ethnic group reported in Liben was the Somali 112,350 (99.9%). The majority ethnic group in filtu are Dagodia clan of

clan.

Agriculture

A sample enumeration performed by the CSA in 2001 interviewed 6,195 farmers in this woreda, who held an average of 0.5 hectares of land. Of the 3103 hectares of private land surveyed, 51.79% was under cultivation, 2.03% was pasture, 41.15% fallow, and 5.03% was devoted to other uses; the area in woodland is missing. For the land surveyed in this woreda, 48.66% is planted in cereals like

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

and

sorghum ''Sorghum bicolor'', commonly called sorghum () and also known as great millet, broomcorn, guinea corn, durra, imphee, jowar, or milo, is a species in the Poaceae, grass genus ''Sorghum (genus), Sorghum'' cultivated for its grain. The grain i ...

, and 0.53% in pulses; no area was reported to be planted in root crops or vegetables. Permanent crops included 0.01 hectares planted in fruit trees. 34.41% of the farmers both raise crops and livestock, while 1.47% only grow crops and 64.12% only raise livestock. Land tenure in this woreda was distributed amongst 99.47% owning their land, a negligible number renting, and the remaining 0.53% holding their land under other forms of tenure."Central Statistical Authority of Ethiopia. Agricultural Sample Survey (AgSE2001). Report on Area and Production - Somali Region. Version 1.1 - December 2007"
(accessed 26 January 2009)

Notes

{{Districts of the Somali Region Districts of Somali Region