Mille is a

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 ...

of Awsi Rasu (Administrative Zone 1) within Afar Region,

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 named for the

Mille River The Mille River is a river of Ethiopia and a tributary of the Awash. It drains parts of the Semien (North) Wollo and Debub (South) Wollo Zones of the Amhara Region, as well as Administrative Zone 4 of the Afar Region. The explorer L.M. Nesbitt ...

, a tributary of the Awash River. Mille is bordered on the south by the Administrative Zone 3, on the southwest by Administrative Zone 5, on the west by the Amhara Region, on the northwest by Chifra, on the northeast by

Dubti Dubti is a town in north-east Ethiopia. Located in Awsi Rasu, Afar Region, this town has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 378 meters above sea level. A UN-EUE mission, accompanied by two non-government organizations, surveying co ...

, and on the southeast by the

Somali Region The Somali Region ( so, Deegaanka Soomaalida, am, ሱማሌ ክልል, Sumalē Kilil, ar, المنطقة الصومالية), also known as Soomaali Galbeed (''Western Somalia'') and officially the Somali Regional State, is a regional state ...

. Towns in Mille include Mille and Eli Wuha. The highest point in this district is Mount Gabillema, at 1,459 meters, a dormant volcano in the southeastern part. Roads in this woreda include the feeder road between Chifra and Mille, which is 105 kilometers in length; it was constructed in two segments between February 1999 and February 2001 by

SUR Construction Sur or SUR or El Sur (Spanish "the South") may refer to: Geography * Sur or Shur (Bible), the wilderness of Sur/Shur from the Book of Exodus * Sur (river), a river of Bavaria, Germany * Súr, a village in Hungary * Sur, a district of the city of ...

. Important local landmarks include the

Yangudi Rassa National Park Yangudi Rassa National Park ( am, ያንጉዲ ራሳ ብሔራዊ ፓርክ, translit=yanigudī rasa biḥērawī pariki) is a national park in Ethiopia located in Afar Region. Geography Its of territory include Mount Yangudi () near the souther ...

, which covers the southeast corner of Mille, but not Mount Gabillema; and the archeological sites at Hadar and

Dikika The Dikika is an area of the Afar Region of Ethiopia where the hominin fossil named Selam was found (a specimen of the ''Australopithecus afarensis'' species). Dikika is located in Mille woreda.Based on the map of the findsite printed in Alemseged ...

where specimens of ''

Australopithecus afarensis ''Australopithecus afarensis'' is an extinct species of australopithecine which lived from about 3.9–2.9 million years ago (mya) in the Pliocene of East Africa. The first fossils were discovered in the 1930s, but major fossil finds would not ...

'' have been recovered.

History

In 2004, grazing conditions in Mille woreda had become degraded due to the encroachment by

invasive Invasive may refer to: *Invasive (medical) procedure *Invasive species *Invasive observation, especially in reference to surveillance *Invasively progressive spread of disease from one organ in the body to another, especially in reference to cancer ...

thick and thorny '' Prosopis juliflora'' bushes, leading to significant tensions between Issa and

Afar Afar may refer to: Peoples and languages *Afar language, an East Cushitic language *Afar people, an ethnic group of Djibouti, Eritrea, and Ethiopia Places Horn of Africa *Afar Desert or Danakil Desert, a desert in Ethiopia *Afar Region, a region ...

herders, due to the resulting scarcity of pasturage. On 4 February 2007, the Afar Regional Cabinet approved the division of this woreda, creating a new woreda out of the western part, with its administrative center to be at Hadar. The Ethiopian

paleoanthropologist Paleoanthropology or paleo-anthropology is a branch of paleontology and anthropology which seeks to understand the early development of anatomically modern humans, a process known as hominization, through the reconstruction of evolutionary kinship ...

Yohannes Haile-Selassie led a number of digs in this woreda between 2004 and 2007.

Demographics

Based on the 2007 Census conducted by the

Central Statistical Agency The Central Statistical Agency (CSA; Amharic: ማዕከላዊ ስታቲስቲክስ ኤጀንሲ) is an agency of the government of Ethiopia designated to provide all surveys and censuses for that country used to monitor economic and social growth ...

of Ethiopia (CSA), this woreda has a total population of 90,673, of whom 49,705 are men and 40,968 women; with an area of 5,345.71 square kilometers, Mille has a population density of 16.96. While 14,208 or 15.67% are urban inhabitants, a further 66,212 or 73.02% are pastoralists. A total of 14,515 households were counted in this woreda, which results in an average of 6.2 persons to a household, and 15,642 housing units. 98.72% 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 ...

, and 1.22% 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 ...

.Census 2007 Tables: Afar Region
, Tables 2.1, 2.4, 2.5, 3.1, 3.2 and 3.4.

Notes

External links

Article about discovery of hominid remains
(July 2007) {{Districts of the Afar Region Districts of Afar Region