Goro Gutu

Goro Gutu is one of the woredas in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia. This woreda is named after Goro Gutu, its tallest mountain. Part of the Misraq (East) Hararghe Zone, Goro Gutu is bordered on the south by Deder, on the west by the Mirab (West) Hararghe Zone, on the north by the Somali Region, and on the east by Meta. The administrative center is Karamile; other towns include Boroda.

The altitude of this woreda ranges from 1200 to 2660 meters above sea level; other notable elevations include Mount Gangilo. Rivers include the Erer, Usman Ejersa and Burka. A survey of the land in Goro Gutu (released in 1994/95) shows that 20.3% is arable or cultivable, 19.9% pasture and forest, and the remaining 59.8% is considered built-up, degraded or otherwise unusable. Khat, vegetables and fruits are important cash crops. Although coffee is also an important cash crop for this woreda, only between 20 and 50 square kilometers are planted with it.

Industry in the woreda includes 15 grain mills employing 53 people, as well as 209 registered businesses including wholesalers, retailers and service providers. There were 27 Farmers Associations with 24,115 members and no Farmers Service Cooperatives. Goro Gutu has 74 kilometers of dry-weather and 68 of all-weather road, for an average road density of 268 kilometers per 1000 square kilometers. About 18.9% of the urban, 3.7% of the rural and 4.4% of the total population have access to drinking water.

In October 2004, a referendum was held in about 420 kebeles in 12 woredas across five zones of the Somali Region to settle the boundary between Oromia and the adjacent Somali Region. According to the official results of the referendum, about 80% of the disputed areas have fallen under Oromia administration, though there were numerous allegations of voting irregularities in many of them. The results led over the following weeks to minorities in these kebeles being pressured to leave. The woreda administration send an urgent request to the NGO Catholic Relief Service for assistance with the immediate humanitarian needs of 324 refugees, which included food, shelter and clothing. These had fled from the Somali woreda of Erer due to the ethnic violence.

...
Wikipedia