Raya Azebo is a

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

in the

Tigray region The Tigray Region (or simply Tigray; officially the Tigray National Regional State) is the northernmost Regions of Ethiopia, regional state in Ethiopia. The Tigray Region is the homeland of the Tigrayan, Irob people, Irob and Kunama people. I ...

of Ethiopia. The administrative center of this district is Mekhoni. Other towns in Raya Azebo include Kukufto, Bala, and Chercher.

History

Air raids during the civil war of the 1980s

During the

Ethiopian Civil War The Ethiopian Civil War was a civil war in Ethiopia and present-day Eritrea, fought between the Ethiopian military junta known as the Derg and Ethiopian-Eritrean anti-government rebels from 12 September 1974 to 28 May 1991. The Derg overthre ...

, on 9 September 1989, Chercher was bombed by the

Ethiopian Air Force The Ethiopian Air Force (ETAF) () is the air service branch of the Ethiopian National Defence Force. The ETAF is tasked with protecting the national air space, providing support to ground forces, as well as assisting civil operations during wa ...

148 people were killed and over 100 wounded. On 12 September 1989, the village of Gerarsa (northeast of Mekhoni) was bombed and four people were wounded.

Administrative Boundaries

The territory of Raya-Azebo is located in the southern part of

Tigray The Tigray Region (or simply Tigray; officially the Tigray National Regional State) is the northernmost Regions of Ethiopia, regional state in Ethiopia. The Tigray Region is the homeland of the Tigrayan, Irob people, Irob and Kunama people. I ...

. It borders the region of the Tigray state.

Demographics

Based on the 2007 national 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 district 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 district, 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 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 ...

. The 1994 national census reported a total population for this district of 87,638 of whom 43,259 were men and 44,379 were women; 8,047 or 9.18% of its population were urban. Tigrigna was spoken as a first language by 85.52%, 11.04%

Amharic Amharic is an Ethio-Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amhara people, and also serves as a lingua franca for all other metropolitan populati ...

, 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 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 ...

, and 30.82% were

. Concerning

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

, 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.''1994 Population and Housing Census of Ethiopia: Results for Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region'', Vol. 1, part 1
Tables 2.1, 2.12, 2.19, 3.5, 3.7, 6.3, 6.11, 6.13 (accessed 30 December 2008)

References

{{Districts of the Tigray Region Districts of Tigray Region