Afder Zone

Afder Zone Gobolka Afdheer
Map of Afder Zone
Afder Zone Location within Ethiopia
Coordinates: 5°15′N 43°00′E / 5.250°N 43.000°E / 5.250; 43.000
Country	Ethiopia
Region	Somali
Zone	Afder
Population (2007)
• Total	570,629
Time zone	EAT (UTC+3)

Afder (Somali: Afdheer) is one of the nine Zones of the Somali Region of Ethiopia. Afder is bordered on the southwest by the Ganale Dorya River which separates it from Liben, on the west by the Oromia Region, on the north by Fiq Zone, on the northeast by Gode, and on south by the Provisional Administrative Line with Somalia. The administrative center of Afder is Hargele; other towns in Afder include Cherti and Weldiya.

In April 2006, in partnership with Al-Nejah Relief, CHF International began a program to restore shallow wells and improve sanitation habits in the Afder and Gode Zones of the Somali Region.

Based on the 2007 Census conducted by the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA), this Zone has a total population of 570,629, of whom 325,764 are men and 244,865 women. While 45,763 or 8.02% are urban inhabitants, a further 316,032 or 55.38% were pastoralists. The largest ethnic group reported in Afder was the Somalis (91.83%); all other ethnic groups made up 8.17% of the population. Somali language is spoken as a first language by 88.21%; the remaining 11.79% spoke all other primary languages reported. 99.19% of the population said they were Muslim.

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 kebeles, 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 (96.21%) and the Oromo (1.29%); all other ethnic groups made up 2.5% of the population. Somali was spoken as a first language by 93.23% of the inhabitants, and Oromiffa by 2.16%; the remaining 4.61% spoke all other primary languages reported. Concerning education 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 at the time of the census; about 23% of the urban and 4.3% of the total had toilet facilities.