Somali Region; is the eastern-most of the nine
ethnic divisions||Ethiopia is divided into 9 ethnically-based administrative regions and two chartered cities...
(
kililoch) of
EthiopiaEthiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
. It is often called
Somalia, though it is not to be confused with the
independent country of the same nameSomalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...
. The capital of Somali State is
JijigaJijiga is a city in eastern Ethiopia and the capital of the Somali Region of that country. Located in the Jijiga Zone approximately 80 km east of Harar and 60 km west of the border with Somalia, this city has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 1,609 meters above sea...
. The capital had been at
Kebri DaharKebri Dahar is a town in the eastern part of Ethiopia known as the Ogaden. Located in the Korahe Zone of the Somali Region, this town has a latitude and longitude of and an elevation of 493 meters above sea level...
(Qabridahare) until 1992, when it moved to
GodeGode is a city in the Ethiopian part of the Ogaden. Located in the Gode Zone of the Somali Region, the city has a latitude and longitude of...
/Godey until April 1994, but due to political considerations it was moved. Other major towns and cities include (the Somali spelling in brackets):
DegehaburDegehabur is a town in the eastern part of Ethiopia known as the Ogaden. Located in the Degehabur Zone of the Somali Region on the Jerer River, it sits at 1044 meters above sea level. The town is the administrative center of Degehabur woreda....
(Dhagaxbuur),
Kebri DaharKebri Dahar is a town in the eastern part of Ethiopia known as the Ogaden. Located in the Korahe Zone of the Somali Region, this town has a latitude and longitude of and an elevation of 493 meters above sea level...
(Qabridahare),
FerferFerfer is a town in southeastern Ethiopia. Located in the Gode Zone of the Somali Region close to the border with Somalia, this town has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 177 meters above sea level....
(Feerfeer),
ShilavoShilavo is a town of the Ethiopian part of the Ogaden. Located in the Korahe Zone of the Somali Region, the town has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 395 meters above sea level. it is the administrative center of Shilavo woreda....
(Shilaabo),
GeladinGeladin is a town in eastern Ethiopia. Located in the Werder Zone of the Somali Region, this town has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation between 427 and 530 meters above sea level....
(Geladi),
KelafoKelafo is a town in eastern Ethiopia. Located in the Gode Zone of the Somali Region, this town has a longitude and latitude of and an elevation of 233 meters above sea level....
(Qalaafe),
Werder-People:*August von Werder , Prussian general*Ed Werder , U.S. sports journalist*Felix Werder , Australian-based composer of classical and electronic music...
(Wardheer) and
ShinileShinile is a town in eastern Ethiopia. Located in the Shinile Zone of the Somali Region, this town has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 1079 meters above sea level...
(Shiniile). The region borders
KenyaKenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
to the south-west, the Ethiopian regions of Oromia,
AfarAfar is one of the nine ethnic divisions of Ethiopia, and is the homeland of the Afar people. Formerly known as Region 2, its current capital is Asayita; a new capital named Semera on the paved Awash - Asseb highway is under construction....
and
Dire DawaDire Dawa is one of two chartered cities in Ethiopia . This chartered city is divided administratively into two woredas, the city proper and the non-urban woreda of Gurgura....
(Diridhawa) to the west,
DjiboutiDjibouti , officially the Republic of Djibouti , is a country in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Eritrea in the north, Ethiopia in the west and south, and Somalia in the southeast. The remainder of the border is formed by the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden at the east...
to the north and
SomaliaSomalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...
to the north, east and south.
Overview
The region covers much of the traditional territory of
OgadenOgaden is the name of a territory comprising the southeastern portion of the Somali Regional State in Ethiopia. The inhabitants are predominantly ethnic Somali and Muslim. The title "Somali Galbeed", which means "Western Somalia," is often preferred by Somali irredentists.The region, which is...
and it formed a large part of the pre-1995 province of
HarargheHararghe was a province in the eastern part of Ethiopia, with its capital in Harar. Including Ethiopia's part of the Ogaden, Haraghe was bounded on the south by Sidamo, southwest by Arsi, west by Shewa, northwest by Wollo, northeast by French Somaliland, and on the east by Somalia.Hararghe came...
. The population is predominantly Somali, and there is internal pressure to remove Ethiopian rule. There have been attempts to incorporate the area into a
Greater SomaliaGreater Somalia refers to those regions in the Horn of Africa in which ethnic Somalis are and have historically represented the predominant population. Greater Somalia encompasses Somalia, Djibouti, the Ogaden of Ethiopia and the North Eastern Province of Kenya. Pan-Somalism refers to the vision...
. In the 1970s, Somalia invaded Ethiopia in support of a local guerrilla movement, igniting the
Ogaden WarThe Ogaden War was a conventional conflict between Somalia and Ethiopia in 1977 and 1978 over the Ogaden region of Ethiopia. In a notable illustration of the nature of Cold War alliances, the Soviet Union switched from supplying aid to Somalia to supporting Ethiopia, which had previously been...
, which Somalia lost due to timely military intervention from the
Soviet UnionThe Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and its ally
CubaThe Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
. Despite this defeat, local groups still seek either to become part of Somalia or independence, frequently resorting to violence; one such action, the 2007
Abole oil field raidThe Abole oil field raid occurred in the early morning of April 24, 2007 when gunmen of the Ogaden National Liberation Front attacked a Chinese oil company's premises in the town of Abole, northwest of Degehabur, in the Somali Region of Ethiopia...
, has led to a
series of military reprisalsThe 2007–2008 Ethiopian crackdown in Ogaden was a campaign involving the Ethiopian Army on the offensive against the rebel Ogaden National Liberation Front...
against civilians accused of supporting the
Ogaden National Liberation FrontThe Ogaden National Liberation Front , is a separatist rebel group fighting to make the region of Ogaden in eastern Ethiopia an independent state...
.
Until its first-ever district elections in February 2004, Zonal and
woredaWoreda is an administrative division of Ethiopia , equivalent to a district . Woredas are composed of a number of Kebele, or neighborhood associations, which are the smallest unit of local government in Ethiopia...
administrators, and village chairmen were appointed by the Regional government. Senior politicians at the Regional level nominated their clients to the local government positions. In the 2004 local elections, each woreda elected a council including a spokesman, vice-spokesman, administrator, and vice-administrator. These councils have the responsibility of managing budgets and development activities within their respective districts.
In late April 2005, heavy rains caused widespread flooding throughout Somali Region and in Somalia, and caused the
Shebelle RiverThe Shebelle River begins in the highlands of Ethiopia, and then flows southeast into Somalia towards Mogadishu. Near Mogadishu, it turns sharply southwest, where it follows the coast. Below Mogadishu, the river becomes seasonal...
to burst its banks. As of May 2005, the
floodA flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land. The EU Floods directive defines a flood as a temporary covering by water of land not normally covered by water...
ing in Somali Region alone had caused over 100 confirmed deaths and widespread property damage affecting over 100,000 people. The floods also destroyed shelters housing 25,000 Somali refugees in
KenyaKenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
near Dorooro in Ogaden.
Demographics
Based on the 2007 Census conducted by the
Central Statistical AgencyThe Central Statistical Agency is an agency of the government of Ethiopia designated to provide all surveys and censuses for that country used to monitor economic and social growth, as well as to act as an official training center in that field. It is part of the Ethiopian Ministry of Finance and...
of Ethiopia (CSA), the Somali Region has a total population of 4,439,147, consisting of 2,468,784 men and 1,970,363 women; urban inhabitants number 621,210 or 14% of the population. With an estimated area of 279,252 square kilometers, this region has an estimated density of 15.9 people per square kilometer. For the entire region 665,397 households were counted, which results in an average for the Region of 6.6 persons to a household, with urban households having on average 6.3 and rural households 6.7 people. Ethnic groups include
SomalisSomalis are an ethnic group located in the Horn of Africa, also known as the Somali Peninsula. The overwhelming majority of Somalis speak the Somali language, which is part of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family...
(97.2%),
OromoThe Oromo are an ethnic group found in Ethiopia, northern Kenya, .and parts of Somalia. With 30 million members, they constitute the single largest ethnic group in Ethiopia and approximately 34.49% of the population according to the 2007 census...
(0.46%),
AmharaAmhara are a highland people inhabiting the Northwestern highlands of Ethiopia. Numbering about 19.8 million people, they comprise 26% of the country's population, according to the 2007 national census...
(0.66%), foreign-born Somalis (0.20%) and Gurages (0.12%). 98.4% of the population is
MuslimAccording to the latest 2007 national census, Islam is the second most widely practised religion in Ethiopia after Christianity, with over 25 million of Ethiopians adhering to Islam according to the 2007 national census, having arrived in Ethiopia in 615...
, 0.6% Orthodox Christian, and 1.0% are followers of all other religions.
In the previous census, conducted in 1994, the region's population was reported to be 3,439,860, of which 1,875,996 were males and 1,563,864 were females. The urban residents of the Somali Region numbered 492,710 households, with an average of 6.6 persons per household; a high sex ratio of 120 males to 100 females was reported.
The ethnic groups included Somalis (96.23%), Oromo (2.25%), Amhara (0.69%), and Gurages (0.14%). Somali was the working language and is predominantly spoken within the Region, spoken by 95.9% of the inhabitants. Other major languages included
OromifaOromo, also known as Afaan Oromo, Oromiffa, Afan Boran, Afan Orma, and sometimes in other languages by variant spellings of these names , is an Afro-Asiatic language, and the most widely spoken of the Cushitic family. Forms of Oromo are spoken as a first language by more than 25 million Oromo and...
(2.24%),
AmharicAmharic is a Semitic language spoken in Ethiopia. It is the second most-spoken Semitic language in the world, after Arabic, and the official working language of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. Thus, it has official status and is used nationwide. Amharic is also the official or working...
(0.92%), and Gurage (0.033%). 98.7% of the population were Muslim, 0.9% Orthodox Christian, and 0.3% are followers of other religions.
According to the CSA, , 38.98% of the total population had access to
safe drinking waterAccess to water supply and sanitation in Ethiopia is amongst the lowest in Sub-Saharan Africa and the entire world. While access has increased substantially with funding from external aid, much still remains to be done to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of halving the share of people...
, of whom 21.32% were rural inhabitants and 77.21% were urban. Values for other reported common indicators of the
standard of livingStandard of living is generally measured by standards such as real income per person and poverty rate. Other measures such as access and quality of health care, income growth inequality and educational standards are also used. Examples are access to certain goods , or measures of health such as...
for Somali include the following: 71.8% of the inhabitants fall into the lowest wealth quintile; adult literacy for men is 22% and for women 9.8%; and the Regional infant mortality rate is 57 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, which is less than the nationwide average of 77; at least half of these deaths occurred in the infants’ first month of life.
Agriculture
The CSA of Ethiopia estimated in 2005 that farmers in Somalia had a total of 459,720 cattle (representing 1.19%% of Ethiopia's total cattle), 463,000 sheep (2.66%), 650,970 goats (5.02%), 91,550 asses (3.66%), 165,260 camels (36.2%), 154,670 poultry of all species (0.5%), and 5,330 beehives (0.12%). For nomadic inhabitants, the CSA provided two sets of estimates, one based on aerial surveys and the other on more conventional methodology:
| Livestock |
Aerial Survey
(conducted 5-23 Nov. 2003) |
Conventional survey
(conducted 11 Dec. 2003) |
| Cattle |
670,280 |
130,610 |
| Sheep |
6,410,800 |
250,110 |
| Goats |
5,525,460 |
177,580 |
| Camels |
1,041,870 |
64,510 |
| Asses |
42,640 |
14,290 |
| Mules |
430 |
160 |
| Horses |
50 |
- |
Presidents of Somali State
- Abdulahi Muhammed Sa'adi (ONLF
The Ogaden National Liberation Front , is a separatist rebel group fighting to make the region of Ogaden in eastern Ethiopia an independent state...
) (January 1993 - November 1993)
- Hassan Jire Kalinle (ONLF) (1993 - April 1994)
- Ugaz Abdulrahman Abd Ghani
Ugaas Abdulrahman Abd Ghani or Abdulrahman Muhumad Qani is the chieftain of the Talomoge sub-clan of the Ogaden Somali. He is the past President of the Somali Region of Ethiopia...
(April 1994 - November 1994)
- Iid Tahir Farah (ESDL
The Ethiopian Somali Democratic League was a political party in the Somali Region of Ethiopia. It was the ruling EPRDF's regional partner from 1994 to 1998.- Overview :...
) (1995 - October 1997)
- Mohammed Ma'alin Ali (ONLF) (October 1997 - October 2000)
- Abdul Reshid Dulane Rafle (SPDP
The Somali People's Democratic Party is a political party in Ethiopia, officially representing the Somali people. It is allied with, but not a member of, the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front ....
) (October 2000 - 2003)
- Abdul Jibril Abubakar (acting) (SPDP) (2003 - October 2005)
- Abdulahi Hassan Mohammed (SPDP) (October 2005 - October 2008)
- Daud Mohamed Ali (ESPDP) (October 2008 - July 2010)
- Abdi Mohamoud Omar (ESPDP) (July 2010 - present)
(This list is based on information from
Worldstatesmen.org.)
External links
Further reading
- Tobias Hagmann, "Beyond clannishness and colonialism: understanding political disorder in Ethiopia's Somali Region, 1991- 2004", Journal of Modern African Studies, 43 (2005), 509-536.