Amibara is a woreda in Afar Region, Ethiopia. Part of the Administrative Zone 3, Amibara is bordered on the south by

Awash Fentale Awash Fentale is a woreda in Afar Region, Ethiopia. Part of the Administrative Zone 3, Awash Fentale is bordered on the south by the Oromia Region, on the west by the Amhara Region, on the north by Dulecha, and on the east by Amibara. Towns in ...

, on the west by the Awash River which separates it from Dulecha, on the northwest by the Administrative Zone 5, on the north by Gewane, on the east by the Somali Region, and on the southeast by Oromia Region. Towns in Amibara include

Awash Arba Awash may refer to: * Awash, Ethiopia Awash Subah is a market town in central Ethiopia. Located in Administrative Zone 3 of the Afar Region, above a gorge on the Awash River, after which the town is named, the town lies on the Addis Ababa� ...

Awash Sheleko Awash may refer to: * Awash, Ethiopia Awash Subah is a market town in central Ethiopia. Located in Administrative Zone 3 of the Afar Region, above a gorge on the Awash River, after which the town is named, the town lies on the Addis Ababa� ...

Melka Sedi Melka may refer to: * Melka (surname) *Melka Kunture, a Paleolithic site in Ethiopia *Melka Suftu, a town in Ethiopia *Melka Wakena Hydroelectric Power Station The Melka Wakena Power Station is a hydroelectric power plant of the Wabe Shebelle Ri ...

and

Melka Were Melka may refer to: *Melka (surname) *Melka Kunture, a Paleolithic site in Ethiopia *Melka Suftu, a town in Ethiopia *Melka Wakena Hydroelectric Power Station The Melka Wakena Power Station is a hydroelectric power plant of the Wabe Shebelle Riv ...

. The notable landmarks in this woreda include the fissure vent

Hertali Hertali is a fissure vent in Ethiopia. The fissure vent is believed to have been active through the late Pleistocene to Holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), af ...

(900 meters).

Demographics

Based on the 2007 Census conducted by the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA), this woreda has a total population of 63,378, of whom 35,374 are men and 28,004 women; with an area of 2,007.05 square kilometers, Amibara has a population density of 31.58. While 28,137 or 44.40% are urban inhabitants, a further 6,555 or 10.34% are pastoralists. A total of 13,729 households were counted in this woreda, which results in an average of 4.6 persons to a household, and 14,773 housing units. 68.86% of the population said they were

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

, 21.2% were

Orthodox Christians Orthodoxy (from Greek: ) is adherence to correct or accepted creeds, especially in religion. Orthodoxy within Christianity refers to acceptance of the doctrines defined by various creeds and ecumenical councils in Antiquity, but different Churc ...

, and 9.18% were Protestants.

Agriculture

Commercial agricultural activity in Amibara began before the Italian invasion, when a German-Ethiopian named David Hall operated a farm at Melka Were. A local tradition is that a foreigner in this woreda introduced the

invasive species An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and harms its new environment. Although most introduced species are neutral or beneficial with respect to other species, invasive species ad ...

'' Prosopis juliflora'' to the Afar Region in 1988. Although the original intent was to combat erosion, the species has come to dominate at least 15 square kilometers of land in Amibara, endangering 11 species of trees, 6 shrubs, and 6 grass, all of which the local pastoralists, as well as native wildlife, depend on. This weed has also made growing cotton, an important cash crop, more difficult In response to this threat,

FARM-Africa Farm Africa is a UK-based charitable organization set up in 1985 that works with farmers, pastoralists and forest communities in eastern Africa. The charity promotes sustainable agricultural practices, strengthens markets and protects the en ...

has helped local inhabitants to organize themselves to eradicate ''Prosopis'' from 280 hectares in the Region, as well as build three pod-crushing mills in Amibara and Gewane woredas. A sample enumeration performed by the CSA in 2001 interviewed 9979 farmers in this woreda, who held an average of 0.2 hectares of land. Of the 1.75 square kilometers of private land surveyed, 68.81% was under cultivation; returns for other uses of land was missing. For the land under cultivation in this woreda, 180 hectares was planted in vegetables, 3 in sugar cane, 96 in root crops, 146 in fruit trees like lemons and oranges, and 144.94 in bananas; the returns for cereals and pulses is missing. 10.37% of the farmers both raise crops and livestock, while 1.7% only grow crops and 94.7% only raise livestock. Details about land tenure is missing."Central Statistical Authority of Ethiopia. Agricultural Sample Survey (AgSE2001). Report on Area and Production - Afar Region. Version 1.1 - December 2007"
(accessed 26 January 2009)

Notes

{{coord, 9, 40, N, 40, 20, E, display=title Districts of Afar Region