Shebel Berenta 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 ...

Amhara Region The Amhara Region (), officially the Amhara National Regional State (), is a Regions of Ethiopia, regional state in northern Ethiopia and the homeland of the Amhara people, Amhara, Awi people, Awi, Xamir people, Xamir, Argobba people, Argobba, a ...

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 ...

, named after two older districts which occupy the area this woreda currently covers: Berenta which is north of the Mecha river, and Shebel which is south of that stream. Part of the

Misraq Gojjam Zone East Gojjam (Amharic: ምሥራቅ ጎጃም), also called Misraq Gojjam, is a zone in Amhara Region of Ethiopia. Its capital is Debre Markos. East Gojjam is named after the former province of Gojjam. East Gojjam is bordered on the south by the ...

, Shebel Berenta is bordered on the southwest by Dejen, on the northwest by

Enemay Enemay (Amharic: እነማይ) is one of the woredas in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Misraq Gojjam Zone, Enemay is bordered on the south by Dejen, on the west by Debay Telatgen, on the north by Enarj Enawga, and on the east by Sheb ...

, on the north by

Enarj Enawga Enarj Enawga (Amharic: እናርጅ እናውጋ) is one of the woredas in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Misraq Gojjam Zone, Enarj Enawga is bordered on the south by Enemay, on the southwest by Debay Telatgen, on the west by Hulet ...

, and on the east by the

Abay River Abay may refer to: People * Abay (name) Places * Abay District, East Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan * Abay District, Karagandy Province, Kazakhstan ** Abay (town), the province's administrative center * Abay, Almaty, Kazakhstan * Abay, Aktobe, a villag ...

which separates it from 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 ...

. The major town in Shebel Berenta is

Yed Wuha yEd is a general-purpose diagramming program with a multi-document interface. It is a cross-platform application written in Java that runs on Windows, Linux, Mac OS, and other platforms that support the Java Virtual Machine. It is released und ...

. In 2002, Shebel Berenta was judged to be one of four chronically food insecure woredas in this part of the Amhara Region, due to much of their farmland being "extremely depleted,

deforested Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal and destruction of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. Ab ...

and eroded".

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 woreda has a total population of 103,988, an increase of 35.39% over the 1994 census, of whom 50,938 are men and 53,050 women; 4,230 or 4.07% are urban inhabitants. With an area of 898.37 square kilometers, Shebel Berenta has a population density of 115.75, which is less than the Zone average of 153.8 persons per square kilometer. A total of 24,584 households were counted in this woreda, resulting in an average of 4.23 persons to a household, and 23,942 housing units. The majority of the inhabitants 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 ...

, with 94.86% reporting that as their religion, while 5.07% 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 ...

. The 1994 national census reported a total population for this woreda of 76,807 in 17,407 households, of whom 37,761 were men and 39,046 were women; 1,668 or 2.17% of its population were urban dwellers. The largest ethnic group reported in Shebel Berenta was the Amhara (99.93%).''1994 Population and Housing Census of Ethiopia: Results for Amhara Region'', Vol. 1, part 1
Tables 2.1, 2.7, 2.10, 2.17, Annex II.2 (accessed 9 April 2009) This is a considerable difference from when C.T. Beke passed through the district in November 1841, when he found the inhabitants were " Mietta Gallas, nominally subject to the ruler of Gojam, whose hold on them would, however, appear to be not very strong."Beke
"Route from Ankober to Dima", ''Journal of the Royal Geographical Society''
12 (1842), p. 256 The majority of the inhabitants practiced

, with 93.82% reporting that as their religion, while 6.1% were

Notes

{{Districts of the Amhara Region Districts of Amhara Region