Bako Gazer is one of the

woreda Districts of Ethiopia, also called woredas ( am, ወረዳ; ''woreda''), are the third level of the administrative divisions of Ethiopia – after ''zones'' and the '' regional states''. These districts are further subdivided into a number of ...

s in the

Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region The Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region (often abbreviated as SNNPR; am, የደቡብ ብሔር ብሔረሰቦችና ሕዝቦች ክልል, Yädäbub Bḥer Bḥeräsäbočna Hzboč Kllə) is a regional state in southwestern E ...

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

. It is also called Southern Aari as it is part of the homeland of

Aari people Aari or Ari are a tribal Omotic people indigenous to Omo Valley of Ethiopia. According to 2007 census there are 289,835 ethnic Aari in Ethiopia, which makes up around 0.29% of the country's total population. Nearly all Aari speak the South Omotic ...

. Part of the

Debub Omo Zone South Omo Zone (or Debub Omo Zone) is a List of zones of Ethiopia, zone in the Ethiopian Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region (SNNPR). Debub Omo is bordered on the south by Kenya, on the southwest by the South Sudan, on the west by ...

, Bako Gazer is bordered on the south by

Bena Tsemay Bena Tsemay is one of the woredas in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region of Ethiopia. It is named after Banna and Tsamai people who are living at this woreda. Part of the Debub Omo Zone, Bena Tsemay is bordered on the south b ...

, on the west by the

Mago River Mago River (or Magi River) is a river of southern Ethiopia, entirely located in the Debub Omo Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region. It joins the Neri River to form the Usno River, a tributary of the Omo River. See also ...

which separates it from

Selamago Selamago is a woreda in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Debub Omo Zone, Selamago is bordered on the south by Nyangatom, on the west and north by the Omo River which separates it from the Bench Maj ...

, on the north by the

Basketo special woreda Basketo is a Districts of Ethiopia, woreda in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region of Ethiopia, named after its inhabitants, the Basketo people. Because Basketo is not part of any administrative Zone in the SNNPR, it is consi ...

and

Gelila Torah reading (; ') is a Jewish religious tradition that involves the public reading of a set of passages from a Torah scroll. The term often refers to the entire ceremony of removing the scroll (or scrolls) from the Torah ark, chanting the a ...

, on the northeast by the

Gamo Gofa Zone Gaamo Zone is a zone in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region of Ethiopia. Gaamo is bordered on the south by the Dirashe special woreda, on the southwest by Debub (South) Omo and the Basketo special woreda, on the northwest by K ...

, and on the east by

Male Male (symbol: ♂) is the sex of an organism that produces the gamete (sex cell) known as sperm, which fuses with the larger female gamete, or ovum, in the process of fertilization. A male organism cannot reproduce sexually without access to ...

. The administrative center of this woreda is

Jinka Jinka is a market town in southern Ethiopia. Located in the hills north of the Tama Plains, this town is the capital of the Debub Omo Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region. Currently Jinka is the center of Jinka town adm ...

; other towns in Bako Gazer include Tolta and Wub Hamer. Gelila and Male woredas were separated from Bako Gazer. Bako Gazar wereda, around the zonal capital of Jinka, is located in the intensively cultivated middle altitudes, and could be said to mark the south-western limits of the traditional Ethiopian highland ox-plough agriculture. The highest point in the woreda is Mount Mago (2528 meters). Rivers include the Maki. The

Mago National Park Mago may refer to: Places *Mago Island, an island in Fiji * Mago, Minorca, a Carthaginian and later Roman town in Menorca * Mago, Russia, a rural locality (a settlement) in Khabarovsk Krai, Russia *Mago National Park, in Ethiopia ** Mount Mago a m ...

covers part of the southwestern corner between the Mago and Neri Rivers. According to a 2004 report, Bako Gazer had 59 kilometers of all-weather roads and 84 kilometers of dry-weather roads, for an average road density of 33 kilometers per 1000 square kilometers.

Demographics

Based on the 2007 Census conducted by the CSA, this woreda has a total population of 210,557, of whom 103,773 are men and 106,784 women; 30,974 or 14.71% of its population are urban dwellers. The majority of the inhabitants were

Protestants Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

, with 47.05% of the population reporting that belief, 23.93% practiced traditional beliefs, 23.19% practiced

Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church ( am, የኢትዮጵያ ኦርቶዶክስ ተዋሕዶ ቤተ ክርስቲያን, ''Yäityop'ya ortodoks täwahedo bétäkrestyan'') is the largest of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. One of the few Chris ...

, and 1.72% 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 ...

. In the 1994 national census Bako Gazer had a population of 206,913, of whom 104,286 were men and 102,627 women; 17,527 or 8.47% of its population were urban dwellers. The five largest ethnic groups reported in this woreda were the

Aari Aari or AARI may refer to: * Aari (actor) (born 1985), Indian Tamil film actor * Aari language, an Omotic language *Aari people, an ethnic group from Ethiopia * Aari work, a type of Embroidery of India#Aari, embroidery from India / Pakistan * Arcti ...

(66.5%), the

(21.34%), the Amhara (7.82%), the Goffa (1.12%), and the Basketo (0.93%); all other ethnic groups made up 2.29% of the population.

was spoken as a first language by 67.14% of the inhabitants, 21.67% spoke

, 8.57% spoke

Amharic Amharic ( or ; (Amharic: ), ', ) is an Ethiopian Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amharas, and also serves as a lingua franca for all oth ...

, 0.82% spoke Basketo, and 0.81% spoke Gofa; the remaining 0.99% spoke all other primary languages reported. Concerning

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...

, 13.5% of the population were considered literate. Concerning

sanitary conditions Sanitation refers to public health conditions related to clean drinking water and treatment and disposal of human excreta and sewage. Preventing human contact with feces is part of sanitation, as is hand washing with soap. Sanitation systems ...

, about 71% of the urban and 13% of the total had toilet facilities.''1994 Population and Housing Census of Ethiopia: Results for Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region'', Vol. 1, part 2
Table 6.11 (accessed 17 April 2009)

Notes

{{Authority control Districts of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region