Ofla () is one of the
Districts of Ethiopia
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 ...
, or ''woredas'', in the
Tigray Region
The Tigray Region, officially the Tigray National Regional State, is the northernmost regional state in Ethiopia. The Tigray Region is the homeland of the Tigrayan, Irob, and Kunama people. Its capital and largest city is Mekelle. Tigray ...
of
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 ...
. Part of the
Debubawi Zone
The Southern Zone ( ti, ዞባ ደቡባዊ) is a zone in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. The Southern Zone is bordered on the south and west by the Amhara Region, on the north by the Central Zone, and on the east by the Afar Region. Towns and ci ...
, Ofla is bordered on the south by
Alamata, on the west by the
Amhara Region
The Amhara Region ( am, አማራ ክልል, Åmara Kilil), officially the Amhara National Regional State (), is a regional state in northern Ethiopia and the homeland of the Amhara people. Its capital is Bahir Dar which is the seat of the Re ...
, on the north by
Endamehoni
Endamekoni () (also transliterated as Enda Mohoni) is one of the Districts of Ethiopia, or ''woredas'', in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Debubawi Zone, Endamehoni is bordered on the south by Ofla, on the west by the Amhara Region, on ...
, and on the east by
Raya Azebo
Raya Azebo (simply known as Raya; is a district in the Amhara of Ethiopia. Located at the eastern edge of the Ethiopian highlands, the administrative center of this district is Mekoni. Other towns in Raya Azebo include Alemata, Weyra Wuha, ...
. Small towns in Ofla include
Sesela and
Zikuya. The town of
Korem
Korem (Agewugna: ኮረ/ Sun) (alternative forms include Quoram, Kworam) is a town and separate woreda in Tigray, Ethiopia. Located on the eastern edge of the Ethiopian highlands in the Debubawi (Southern) Zone of the Tigray Region, this town ...
is surrounded by Ofla woreda.
Overview
Within the boundaries of this woreda is
Lake Ashenge
Lake Hashenge (also ጻዕዳ ባሕሪ Lake Hashange, Lake Hashengi) is a lake in the southern Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Located in the Ethiopian highlands at an elevation of 2409 meters, it has no outlet. According to the ''Statistical Abstr ...
, where
Christopher da Gama was defeated in the
Battle of Wofla
The Battle of Wofla was fought on August 28, 1542 near Lake Ashenge in Wofla (Ofla) between the Portuguese under Cristóvão da Gama and the forces of Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi. Reinforced with a superiority not only in numbers but in fi ...
in 1543, and afterwards captured then killed by
Imam Ahmad Gragn
Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi ( so, Axmed Ibraahim al-Qaasi or Axmed Gurey, Harari: አሕመድ ኢብራሂም አል-ጋዚ, ar, أحمد بن إبراهيم الغازي ; 1506 – 21 February 1543) was an imam and general of the Adal Sultan ...
. Wofla was briefly governed by
Abubaker Qecchin
Abubaker "the Slim" (Qecchin) also known simply as Qecchin or Katchthcen was a general in the Adal Sultanate under Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi. Abubaker's sobriquet ''"Qecchin"'' is derived from the Harari term for ''"thin"''. He was the Garad/emir ...
of
Adal
Adal may refer to:
*A short form for Germanic names in ''aþala-'' (Old High German ''adal-''), "nobility, pedigree"; see Othalan
**Adál Maldonado (1948-2020), Puerto Rican artist
** Adal Ramones (born 1969), Mexican television show host
** Adal ...
in the sixteenth century.
Another local landmark is
Hugumburda State Forest, which contains the highest portion of an extensive area of indigenous coniferous forest.
Construction began by March 2009 on six health stations in this woreda which would extend health service coverage to six
kebele
A ward ( am, ቀበሌ; om, Araddaa; ) is the smallest administrative unit of Ethiopia: a ward, a neighbourhood or a localized and delimited group of people. It is part of a district, itself usually part of a zone, which in turn are grouped into ...
s and benefit 150,000 inhabitants in and near the woreda. The budget for this construction, set at seven million
Birr, was provided by the Ethiopian Federal government and the woreda administration.
Demographics
Based on the 2007 national 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 growt ...
of Ethiopia (CSA), this woreda has a total population of 126,889, an increase of 17.94% over the 1994 census, of whom 62,278 are men and 64,611 women; no urban inhabitants were reported. With an area of 1,019.76 square kilometers, Ofla has a population density of 124.43, which is greater than the Zone average of 53.91 persons per square kilometer. A total of 29,571 households were counted in this woreda, resulting in an average of 4.29 persons to a household, and 28,717 housing units. 96.6% of the population said they were
Orthodox Christians, and 3.38% were
Muslim.
The 1994 national census reported a total population for this woreda of 124,484, of whom 60,735 were men and 63,749 were women; 17,152 or 13.78% of its population were urban dwellers. The three largest ethnic groups reported in Ofla were the
Tigrayan
Tigrayans ( ti, ተጋሩ) are a Semitic-speaking ethnic group indigenous to the Tigray Region of northern Ethiopia. They speak the Tigrinya language, an Afroasiatic language belonging to the Ethiopian Semitic branch.
The daily life of Tigra ...
(89.2%), the
Agaw Kamyr (7.27%), and the
Amhara (3.46%); all other ethnic groups made up 0.07% of the population.
Tigrinya
(; also spelled Tigrigna) is an Ethio-Semitic language commonly spoken Eritrea and in northern Ethiopia's Tigray Region by the Tigrinya and Tigrayan peoples. It is also spoken by the global diaspora of these regions.
History and literatur ...
was spoken as a first language by 88.07%, 6.94%
Kamyr, and 1.36% spoke
Amharic; the remaining 3.63% spoke all other primary languages reported.
88.57% of the population 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 Chri ...
, and 11.43% were
Muslim. 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 ...
, 9.11% of the population were considered literate, which is less than the Zone average of 15.71%; 11.43% of children aged 7–12 were in primary school; 3.85% of the children aged 13–14 were in junior secondary school; 1.92% of the inhabitants aged 15–18 were in senior secondary school. Concerning
sanitary conditions, about 63.5% of the urban houses and 12% of all houses had access to safe drinking water at the time of the census; about 27% of the urban and 6% of the total had toilet facilities.
''1994 Population and Housing Census of Ethiopia: Results for Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region'', Vol. 1, part 1
, Tables 2.1, 2.12, 2.19, 3.5, 3.7, 6.3, 6.11, 6.13 (Retrieved 30 December 2008)
2020 woreda reorganisation
In 2020 woreda Ofla became inoperative and its territory belongs to the following new woredas:
*Ofla (new, smaller, woreda)
*Zata woreda
*Korem town
Notes
{{Districts of the Tigray Region
Districts of Tigray Region