Jijiga is one of nine zones of the 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...

n 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...

. This zone is named after its largest city, Jijiga

Jijiga

Jijiga 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...

. Other towns and cities in this zone include Qarbibayax, Dhurwaale Awbere

Awbere

Āwberē, officially known as Teferi Ber is a town in eastern Ethiopia. Located in the Jijiga Zone of the Somali Region, near the Somali border on the main trade route between Jijiga and the sea. It is the administrative center of Awbere woreda. It was one of the biggest towns of the Adal Empire.It...

, Derwonaji

Derwonaji

Derwonaji is a town in eastern Ethiopia. Located in the Jijiga Zone of the Somali Region, this town has a longitude and latitude of and an elevation of 1402 meters above sea level....

, tuli gulled and Hart Sheik

Hart Sheik

Hart Sheik is a town in eastern Ethiopia, and best known as the location of a refugee camp operated by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 2000. According to materials at the Nordic Africa Institute website, the town may be named after a Somali sub-clan, the Harti...

. Jijiga is bordered on the south by Degehabur

Degehabur Zone

Degehabur Zone is one of the nine Zones in the Somali Region of Ethiopia. This zone is named after its largest city, Degehabur. Degehabur Zone is bordered on the south by Korahe, on the west by Fiq, on the northwest by the Oromia Region, on the north by Jijiga and Somalia, and on the east by...

, on the west by the Oromia Region

Oromia Region

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

, on the north by Shinile

Shinile Zone

Shinile is one of nine Zones of the Ethiopian Somali Region. Shinile is named for its largest town, Shinile.Located at the northwestern point of the Somali Region, and stretching across the savanna north of the Amhar mountains, Shinile is bordered on the south by the Oromia Region, on the west by...

 and on the east by 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...

.

Jijiga is facing a crisis in deforestation

Ethiopian deforestation

Deforestation in Ethiopia is due to locals clearing forests for their personal needs, such as for fuel, hunting, agriculture, housing development, and at times for religious reasons. The main causes of deforestation in Ethiopia are shifting agriculture, livestock production and fuel in drier areas...

 due to charcoal production which "requires burning trees that will take decades to grow back, if they ever do."

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...

 in 2005, Jijiga has an estimated total population of 1,034,823, of whom 534,147 are men and 500,676 are women; 232,441 or 22.5% of its population are urban dwellers. Density figures for this zone are not available.

The 1997 national census reported a total population for this Zone of 813,200 in 138,679 households, of whom 425,581 were men and 387,619 were women; 155,891 or 19.17% of its population were urban dwellers. The three largest ethnic groups reported in Jijiga 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...

 (87.51%), 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...

 (7.49%), and the Amhara

Amhara people

Amhara 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...

 (2.13%); all other ethnic groups made up the remaining 2.87% 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 by 90.23% of the inhabitants, 6.68% 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...

, and 2.81% spoke Amharic

Amharic language

Amharic 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...

; the remaining 0.28% spoke all other primary languages reported. Only 61,293 or 7.54% were literate.

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, 7% of the inhabitants of Jijiga have access to electricity, this zone has a road density of 30.5 kilometers per 1000 square kilometers, the average rural household has 1.3 hectares of land (compared to the national average of 1.01 hectares of land and an average of 2.25 for pastoral regions) and the equivalent of 1.0 head of livestock. 28.2% of the population is in non-farm related jobs, compared to the national average of 25% and a regional average of 28%. 21% of all eligible children are enrolled in primary school, and 9% in secondary schools. 74% 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 386.