Afder is one of the nine Zones of the Somali Region

Somali Region

Somali Region ; is the eastern-most of the nine ethnic divisions of Ethiopia. It is often called Somalia, though it is not to be confused with the independent country of the same name. The capital of Somali State is Jijiga...

 of Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , 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...

. Afder is bordered on the southwest by the Ganale Dorya River

Ganale Dorya River

The Ganale Dorya River is a perennial river in southeastern Ethiopia. Rising in the mountains east of Aleta Wendo, the Dawa flows south and east to join with the Dawa at the border with Somalia to become the Jubba. Tributaries include the Welmel, Weyib , Dumale, Doya, Hawas and the Hambala...

 which separates it from Liben

Liben Zone

Liben is one of the nine Zones of the Somali Region of Ethiopia. Liben is bordered on the south by Kenya, on the west by the Oromia Region, on the northeast by Afder, and on the southeast by Somalia. Towns in Liben include Softu and Dolo....

, on the west by the Oromia Region

Oromia Region

Oromia is one of the nine ethnic divisions of Ethiopia...

, on the north and northeast by the Shebelle River

Shebelle River

The 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...

 which separates it from Gode

Gode Zone

Gode is one of nine Zones of the Somali Region, Ogaden, of Ethiopia. This zone is named for its largest city, Gode. Gode is bordered on the south by Afder, on the west by the Oromia Region, on the north by Fiq and Degehabur, on the northeast by Korahe and Werder, and on the east by the Provisional...

, and on the east and southeast by the Provisional Administrative Line

Provisional Administrative Line

A Provisional Administrative Line is a de facto border between two countries. For example, part of the border between Ethiopia and Somalia is a Provisional Administrative Line....

 with Somalia

Somalia

Somalia , 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 administrative center of Afder is Hargele; other towns in Afder include Cherti

Cherti, Ethiopia

Cherti is a town in southeastern Ethiopia. Located in the Afder Zone of the Somali Region, this town has a latitude and longitude of with an altitude of 321 meters above sea level....

 and Weldiya

Weldiya (Afder)

Weldiya is a market town in eastern Ethiopia The administrative center of the Afder Zone of the Somali Region, this town has a latitude and longitude of ....

.

In April 2006, in partnership with Al-Nejah Relief, CHF International

CHF International

CHF International is an international development and humanitarian aid organization that operates in approximately thirty countries per year. The non-profit organization was founded in 1952 as the Cooperative Housing Foundation and provided affordable housing for low-income families in rural and...

 began a program to restore shallow wells and improve sanitation habits in the Afder and Gode Zones of the Somali Region.

Demographics

Based on figures from the Central Statistical Agency

Central Statistical Agency (Ethiopia)

The 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...

 (CSA) in 2005, Afder has an estimated total population of 444,633, of which 244,756 are men and 199,877 are women; 38,451 or 8.6% of its population are urban dwellers. Information is not available for the area of Afder, so its population density cannot be calculated.

The 1997 national census reported a total population for this Zone of 358,998 in 53,075 households, of whom 200,948 were men and 158,050 were women; 25,747 or 7.17% of its population were urban dwellers. (This total also includes an estimate for the inhabitants of 9 rural kebele

Kebele

A kebele is the smallest administrative unit of Ethiopia similar to ward, a neighbourhood or a localized and delimited group of people...

s, which were not counted; they were estimated to have 6,526 inhabitants, of whom 3,222 were men and 3,304 women.) The two largest ethnic groups reported in Afder were the Somali

Somali people

Somalis 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...

 (96.21%) and the Oromo

Oromo people

The 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...

 (1.29%); all other ethnic groups made up 2.5% of the population. Somali

Somali language

The Somali language is a member of the East Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Its nearest relatives are Afar and Oromo. Somali is the best documented of the Cushitic languages, with academic studies beginning before 1900....

 was spoken as a first language by 93.23% of the inhabitants, and Oromiffa

Oromo language

Oromo, 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...

 by 2.16%; the remaining 4.61% spoke all other primary languages reported. Concerning education

Education in Ethiopia

Education in Ethiopia has been dominated by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church for many centuries until secular education was adopted in the early 1900s. Prior to 1974, Ethiopia had an estimated illiteracy rate well above 90% and compared poorly with the rest of Africa in the provision of schools and...

 in the Zone, 3.43% of the population were considered literate; 0.57% of children aged 7–12 were in primary school, while a negligible number of the children aged 13–14 were in junior secondary school, and none of children aged 15–18 were in senior secondary school. About 24.2% of the urban houses and 6.7% of all houses had access to safe drinking water

Water supply and sanitation in Ethiopia

Access 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...

 at the time of the census; about 23% of the urban and 4.3% of the total had toilet facilities.

According to a May 24, 2004 World Bank

World Bank

The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...

 memorandum, none of the inhabitants of Afder have access to electricity, this zone has a road density of 8.3 kilometers per 1000 square kilometers, the average rural household has 0.6 hectare of land (compared to the national average of 1.01 hectare of land and an average of 2.25 for pastoral Regions) and the equivalent of 3.1 heads of livestock. 28.2% of the population is in non-farm related jobs, compared to the national average of 25% and an average of 28% for pastoral Regions. 12% of all eligible children are enrolled in primary school, and none in secondary schools. 100% of the zone is exposed to malaria

Malaria

Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...

, and none to Tsetse fly

Tsetse fly

Tsetse , sometimes spelled tzetze and also known as tik-tik flies, are large biting flies that inhabit much of mid-continental Africa between the Sahara and the Kalahari deserts. They live by feeding on the blood of vertebrate animals and are the primary biological vectors of trypanosomes, which...

. The memorandum gave this zone a drought risk rating of 660.

Agriculture

On 5–23 November 2003, the CSA conducted the first ever national agricultural census, of which the livestock census was an important component. For the Somali Region, the CSA generated estimated figures for the livestock population (cattle, sheep, goats, camels, and equids) and their distribution by commissioning an aerial survey. For the Afder Zone, their results included:

Animal	Estimated total	number per sqk.
cattle	166,471	2.8
sheep	1,152,509	31.3 (including goats)
goats	722,709	31.3 (including sheep)
camels	140,454	2.3
asses	4,327	0.1 (all equids)
mules	63	0.1 (all equids)
horses	16	0.1 (all equids)