Shinile zone

The Shinile Zone is the northernmost administrative zone of the Somali region in Ethiopia . According to the 2007 census, it had 456,434 residents, of whom 64,122 lived in urban areas.

geography

The zone is divided into the six woredas Afdem , Mieso , Ayisha , Erer , Dembel and Shinile . With the exception of Dembel , all woreda main towns - Afdem , Mieso , Ayisha , Erer and Shinile - are on the railway line from Addis Ababa via Dire Dawa to Djibouti . Other larger towns are Dewele , Smekeb , Harmukale , Arebi, Adigale , Asibuli , Hurso and Bike .

Shinile is located in the lowlands north of the Harar mountains and is part of the Afar lowlands . The area sinks from up to 1350 m in the south to about 950 m in the north. Watercourses run from south to north, reaching the arid northern plains only in the rainy season. The area is arid to semi-arid.

population

In 1997, of 354,053 inhabitants, 96.27% were Somali , 2.57% Oromo and 0.77% Amharen . Most of the Somali belong to the Issa clan - Dir , but Gurgura and Gadabursi (who also belong to you) and Hawiye also live in Shinile .

In 1997, 96.29% of the population spoke Somali as their mother tongue, 2.37% Oromo and 1.16% Amharic . 6.27% spoke a second language: 3.16% also spoke Oromo, 1.6% Amharic and 0.56% Somali. 4.89% of the residents over ten years old could read and write.

economy

The most important livelihoods are livestock and some agriculture ( agropastoralism ). 75-85% of the population - especially the Issa - are cattle breeders who mainly keep sheep and cattle, in less productive areas camels and goats. Households that do not have a herd of camels also keep at least one camel as a pack animal. In the dry season, sheep and milk-producing animals remain near the villages, while camels, cattle and goats are taken to other grazing areas. The cattle breeders eat a large part of the milk and the ghee made from it , and they also sell cattle and buy sorghum and sugar for this .

The majority of the Gurgura, Gadabursi and Hawiye now live as agropastoralists. In the south of the zone, in the hilly area at the foot of the highlands, they grow sorghum and maize and mainly keep cattle. A total of 15-25% of the population of the Shinile Zone are agropastoralists. This way of life found its way into the Woreda Dembel as early as 1965; in other areas, cattle breeders began to cultivate arable land, especially in the early 1990s. This enabled them to reduce their herds of cattle and better adapt to the recurring droughts. The transition to agropastoralism was also promoted by the Ethiopian state. In addition, the Somali wanted to pre-empt Oromo farmers from the highlands, who increasingly went to the lowlands to cultivate land claimed by the Somali.

According to estimates by the Central Statistics Agency in 2003, based on aerial photographs, there were around 200,000 cattle, 670,000 sheep, 850,000 goats and 100,000 camels in the zone. Drought is always a problem, with 40% and 37% of the livestock dying in 2000 and 2002, respectively. There are conflicts over scarce water and land, especially between the Issa and the Afar . In 1997, 3.4% of residents over 10 years old could read.

swell

1. ↑ Central Statistical Agency : Summary and Statistical Report of the 2007 Population and Housing Census Results ( Memento of March 5, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 4.7 MB)
2. ↑ ^{a b} Save the Children / Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Agency: Shinile Agropastoral Livelihood Zone ( Memento of the original from February 16, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 833 kB), 2001 
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Abraham Sewonet, UN-Emergencies Unit for Ethiopia: Issa suffer from massive cattle deaths and conflict with Afar over scarce resources  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , 2002 (PDF)  
4. ↑ ^{a b} Save the Children / DPPA: Shinile Pastoral Livelihood Zone ( Memento of the original from December 14, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 865 kB), 2001 
5. ↑ ^{a b c} CSA: 1994 Population and Housing Census of Ethiopia: Results for Somali Region, Vol. 1 ( Memento of the original from September 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 51.8 MB), 1998 (pp. 60, 76, 78, 118) 
6. ↑ CSA: Livestock aerial survey in the Somali Region, November 2003 ( Memento of the original from July 16, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 565 kB) 
7. ^ Ministry of Agriculture: Contingency Plan for Afar Regional State and Shinile Zone of SNRS, Agricultural Interventions (Draft), Addis Abeba 2002