Itang (woreda)

Itang is one of the woredas in the Gambela Region of Ethiopia. Because Itang is not part of any Zone in the Gambela Region, it is considered a Special woreda, an administrative subdivision which is similar to an autonomous area. It is bordered on the south and southeast by the Anuak Zone, on the west by the Nuer Zone, on the northwest by South Sudan, and on the north by the Oromia Region; part of the southern boundary is defined by the Alwero River. The major town in Itang is Itang.

The terrain is mostly flat; the altitude of this woreda ranges from 350 to 480 meters above sea level; rivers include the Baro, which the Alwero is a tributary of. According to the Atlas of the Ethiopian Rural Economy published by the Central Statistical Agency (CSA), around 10% of the woreda is forest. A notable landmark is the Gambela National Park, which embraces the woreda south of the Baro.

The economy of Itang is predominantly agricultural. There are no agricultural cooperatives, no documented roads, and little other infrastructure. Economy The woreda is one of the higlhly affected wordas by floods.

At the start of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Itang was part of the Administrative Zone 1; however between 2001 and 2007 it was separated from that Zone and became a special woreda.

In 1987, Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) soldiers massacred about 16 civilians (most of them women and children) and militiamen in the village of Akado in Itang, the site of a former American mission. Local Anuak militia and the SPLA clashed in Akado two years later, resulting the deaths of 10 SPLA men and 14 local people. A 2002 United Nations Emergency Unit for Ethiopia assessment report mentions increasing conflict during the first part of that year between the Anuak and Nuer in this woreda over control of arable land along the rivers where the Anuak normally farm.

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