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33-587: Asosa or Assosa is the capital of Benishangul-Gumuz Region , Ethiopia . Located in the Asosa Zone , this town has a latitude and longitude of 10°04′N 34°31′E  /  10.067°N 34.517°E  / 10.067; 34.517 , with an elevation of 1,570 meters. According to the Dutch explorer Juan Maria Schuver , who visited the town in 1881, Asosa was "a prosperous village as several slave-merchants live here" who travelled to Leqa Naqamte and to

66-559: A distance of 1,250 kilometers, but it is now around 378 kilometers on the new road and bridge. Conditions for travel within zones varies, but is often poor and subject to disruption by the rainy season . On 28 July 2009, the Regional Rural Roads Authority reported that over the previous year almost 600 of the 800 kilometers of local all-weather roads had been upgraded at a cost of 11.5 million birr , and an additional 447 kilometers of roads constructed. Based on

99-532: A request to return Khalifa to Ethiopia, resulting in increased tensions between the two countries. Based on figures from the Central Statistical Agency in 2015, Asosa has an estimated total population of 20,226, of whom 10,929 are men and 9,297 are women. The 1994 national census reported a total population for Asosa of 11,749 in 2,825 households, of whom 6,324 were men and 5,425 women. The six largest ethnic groups reported in this town were

132-496: A road density of 28.4 kilometers per 1000 square kilometers, the average rural household has 1.4 hectare of land (compared to the national average of 1.01 hectare of land and an average of 2.25 for pastoral regions) and the equivalent of 0.6 heads of livestock. 10% of the population is in non-farm related jobs, compared to the national average of 25% and an average of 28% for pastoral regions. 93% of all eligible children are enrolled in primary school, and 25% in secondary schools. 68% of

165-405: A second language by another 10%. The majority of the inhabitants practiced Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity , with 54.49% of the population reporting that they held that belief, while 20.31% were Muslim , 17.65% observed traditional religions, and 6.36% were Protestant . According to a May 24, 2004 World Bank memorandum, 8% of the inhabitants of Metekel have access to electricity, this zone has

198-445: Is covered with forest, including bamboo , eucalyptus and rubber trees , incense and gum forests as well as the indigenous species. However, due to increased population which has led to the widespread destruction of the canopy, authorities announced a campaign on 8 June 2007 to plant 1.5 million seedlings over the next two months to replenish this resource. (This list is based on information from Worldstatesmen.org , John Young, and

231-552: The Ethiopian News Agency website ) Like other regions in Ethiopia, Benishangul-Gumuz is subdivided into administrative zones. 10°46′N 35°32′E  /  10.767°N 35.533°E  / 10.767; 35.533 Metekel Zone Metekel Zone is located in the current Benishangul-Gumuz region of Ethiopia . It is bordered on the south and southwest by Kamashi , on the west by Sudan , and on

264-553: The Funj Sultanate in 1685. According to Negasso Gidada , Oromo penetration into the region began in the mid-18th century. In the first quarter of the 19th century, Arab traders arrived from Sennar , which was occupied by Ottoman Egypt from 1821. These traders married into the Berta upper class and thus gained political influence. By the middle of the century, the waṭāwiṭ , the descendants of Arabs and Berta, had become

297-772: The Kwama people to purchase slaves. He also mentions that "fine views are obtained at Inzing [the earlier name for Asosa] into the forestclad ravines that plunge down into the White Nile basin." A Belgian force from the Congo captured Asosa on 11 March 1941, destroying the Italian 10th Brigade and capturing 1,500 men. During the Ethiopian Civil War , with help from the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF),

330-571: The Metekel conflict began. In December 2019, about 200 people were killed in the Metekel massacre . The CSA of Ethiopia estimated in 2005 that farmers in Benishangul-Gumuz had a total of 307,820 head of cattle (representing 0.79% of Ethiopia's total cattle), 65,800 sheep (0.38%), 244,570 goats (1.88%), 1,770 mules (1.2%), 37,520 asses (1.5%), 732,270 poultry of all species (2.37%), and 166,130 beehives (3.82%). Over 60% of this region

363-727: The Oromo (41.19%), the Amhara (29.93%), the Berta (17.39%), the Tigrayan (5.43%), the Sebat Bet Gurage (1.35%), and the Silt'e (1.29%); all other ethnic groups made up 3.42% of the population. Oromiffa was spoken as a first language by 44.42%, 31.53% spoke Amharic , 15.98% Berta , and 4.43% Tigrinya ; the remaining 3.64% spoke all other primary languages reported. The majority of

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396-600: The Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) captured Asosa from the Derg in early January 1990, and held the city for a brief time. During the occupation, the government airforce subjected Asosa to aerial attacks several times that month, killing 19 people and wounding 20. Before the OLF withdrew from Asosa, it destroyed the town's only electricity generator, stole 1.8 million Birr from the bank, most of which were deposits from

429-772: The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which overthrew the Mengistu regime in 1991 with the coalition EPRDF . As the Berta People's Liberation Movement or Benishangul People's Liberation Movement (BPLM), they - like the Gambella People’s Liberation Movement of the Anuak in Gambella - were not accepted as full members of the EPRDF, but became regional partners of the new ruling coalition. In 2019,

462-712: The standard of living for Benishangul-Gumuz as of 2005 include the following: 19.1% of the inhabitants fall into the lowest wealth quintile; adult literacy for men is 47.4% and for women 23.2%; and the regional infant mortality rate is 84 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, which is greater than the nationwide average of 77; at least half of these deaths occurred in the infants’ first month of life. There are 2 refugee camps and 1 transit center, housing 36,440 refugees from Sudan and South Sudan , located in Benishangul-Gumuz region. Religion in Benishangul-Gumuz Region (2007) Some of ethnic groups native to

495-428: The 17th to 20th centuries and are mainly located on mountains, hills and in rocky areas that are easy to defend. It was not until the mid-20th century that Berta also settled in the lowlands, as slave hunts and armed conflict had ended. The area lay as a " buffer zone " or " no man's land " between southern Sennar and Damot in the highlands. The Ethiopian Emperor Susenyos invaded the area in 1617/18, and it fell to

528-468: The 2007 Census conducted by the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA), the Benishangul-Gumuz Region has a total population of 784,345, consisting of 398,655 men and 385,690 women; urban inhabitants number 105,926 or 13.51% of the population. With an estimated area of 49,289.46 square kilometers, this Region has an estimated density of 15.91 people per square kilometer. For the entire region 174,445 households were counted, which results in an average for

561-623: The Amhara and Tigrayans , who are known as Habesha (or "highlanders") are recent arrivals, who began to settle in the region during the Derg era. According to the 1994 census 44.1% of inhabitants were Muslim, 34.8% Orthodox Christians, 13.1% followers of traditional religions and 5.8% Protestants. According to the CSA, as of 2004 , 27.23% of the total population had access to safe drinking water , of whom 22.35% were rural inhabitants and 58.53% were urban. Values for other reported common indicators of

594-686: The Benishangul-Gumuz region are: Five of these ethnic groups (Benishangul, Gumuz, Shinasha, Mao and Kwama) are granted the exclusive right to non-territorially functioning indigenous councils. Like the Gambela Region , Benishangul-Gumuz is historically closely linked to neighbouring areas of Sudan, and to a lesser extent to the Ethiopian Highlands . These regions served as slave-hunting grounds since Aksumite times, and their Nilosaharan -speaking inhabitants were pejoratively called Shanqella (Šanqəlla, also Shanqila, Shankella) by

627-630: The Berta (27%), Gumuz (23%), Amhara (22%), Oromo (13%) and Shinasha (7%). Berta is spoken in the Sherkole woreda, Gumuz is spoken along the western boundary of Guba and Dangur woredas and in the Sirba Abbay woreda, and the Shinasha are a displaced people of Kaffa scattered across Welega and Gojjam . The Berta, Gumuz and Shinasha tend to have more in common with the people of neighbouring Sudan than with other Ethiopian peoples, while

660-560: The Mengistu regime here came mainly from the Berta. In addition, the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) - supported by the Eritrean People's Liberation Front , which in the meantime had advanced far south from Eritrea - also fought for the area in the Ethiopian civil war in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The OLF tried to incorporate the local population as "black Oromo", but met with little support. The Berta rebels instead allied with

693-616: The Metekel Zone were the Gumuz (39.78%), the Amhara (23.39%),the Shinasha (12.6%),the Awi (11.33%), a subgroup of the Agew , and the Oromo (10.09%); all other ethnic groups made up 1.81% of the population. Main languages are Gumuz (36.31%), Amharic (34.21%), Oromo (19.89%), Shinasha (12.81%) and Awngi (10.91%). Amharic is spoken as a first language by 24% of the population and as

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726-492: The Region of 4.5 persons to a household, with urban households having on average 3.6 and rural households 4.7 people. The ethnic groups include the Berta (25.41%), Amhara (21.69%), Gumuz (20.88%), Oromo (13.55%), Shinasha (7.73%) and Agaw-Awi (4.22%). Main languages are the before;Berta (25.15%), Amharic (22.46%), Gumuz (20.59%), Oromo (17.69%), Shinasha (4.58%) and Awngi (4.01%). Concerning religion, 44.98% of

759-410: The central government on a large scale. Slaves were also smuggled into Sudan across the border, which was established in 1902. Under the regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam , who ruled Ethiopia from 1974, some 250,000 drought and famine-stricken peasants from the highlands—mostly Amharas from Wollo province —were relocated to Benishangul-Gumuz from 1979 and especially in the mid-1980s. Resistance to

792-412: The highland Ethiopians. Besides slaves, gold was traditionally an important export of Benishangul. Little is known about its history before the 19th century. Archaeologists have found sites that they date to the end of the 1st millennium BC or the beginning of the 1st millennium AD and assign them to the forerunners of today's Komuz -speaking ethnic groups. Finds attributing them to the Berta date from

825-550: The inhabitants professed Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity , with 54.92% of the population having reported they practised that belief, while 29.75% of the population said they were Muslim , and 14.89% were Protestant . It is the largest settlement in Asosa woreda . Benishangul-Gumuz Region The region has faced major challenges to economic development, due to lack of transportation and communications infrastructure. The Abay River (Blue Nile) divides Benishangul-Gumuz, and there

858-526: The local farmer cooperatives, and took any valuable items its troops could carry. During the 1990s, Asosa was characterised by entire government office complexes of partially completed buildings, which John Young notes was "testimony to corrupt relations between politicians and contractors." Young continues, "Indicative of the scale of the problem, during a peace and development conference held in Asosa in June 1996,

891-537: The new ruling class. They also began to spread Islam among the Berta. Various trade routes met in Benishangul, and local gold and Ethiopian amole (salt bars) were exchanged for slaves, cattle, horses, iron, civet, musk, coffee, ivory and honey (which also came from the Oromo areas of Sibu and Leeqaa ). Luxury goods such as textiles and glass beads were imported via Sudan . Later in the 19th century, Benishangul

924-620: The north and east by the Amhara region . The Abay River which formerly defined the western border of Gojjam, defines the Zone's boundaries with Kamashi, while the Dinder River defines part of its boundary with the Amhara region. The administrative center of Metekel Zone is Gilgil Beles ; other towns include Manbuk . The highest point is Mount Belaya (3,131 meters), which is part of the Dangur range . MIDROC Gold reported in 2009 that it

957-456: The population were Muslim , 33.3% were Orthodox Christians , 13.53% were Protestant , and 7.09% practiced traditional beliefs. It had a projected population of 1,127,001 in 2018. In the previous census, conducted in 1994, the region's population was reported to be 460,459 of which 233,013 were men and 227,446 were women. Rural population was 424,432, while the urban population was 36,027. The five largest ethnic groups in Benishangul-Gumuz were

990-572: The then deputy prime minister, Tamrat Layne , dismissed the entire regional government and had many of its members imprisoned for corruption." The governor of the town of Asosa, Ahmed Khalifa, on 7 July 2007 fled to Ad-Damazin , the capital of the Blue Nile State , in Sudan. Khalifa was accused by the Ethiopian authorities of offering concessions to Sudan on border issues. Sudan turned down

1023-631: Was affected by the Mahdi uprising . In the late 19th century, Ethiopia, under Menelik II , annexed the Sultanates of Beni Shangul and Gubba (Qubba in Arabic) at the behest of Abdallahi ibn Muhammad of Sudan who feared the British would occupy it. In 1898, Asosa became the political and economic capital. Until the Italian occupation of Ethiopia in the mid-1930s, the area supplied gold and slaves to

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1056-463: Was exploring the Zone for gold deposits. Based on the 2007 Census conducted by the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA), this Zone has a total population of 276,367, of whom 139,119 are men and 137,248 women. 37,615 or 13.61% of population are urban inhabitants. A total of 58,515 households were counted in this Zone, which results in an average of 4.72 persons to a household, and 56,734 housing units. The five largest ethnic groups reported in

1089-698: Was no bridge crossing it until 2012. The major road that connects the Metekel Zone and the Assosa Zone was built by the China Construction Company in 2012. The road has a 365-meter bridge that crosses the Abay. Nowadays it is simple to travel between the regional capital of Assosa and Gilgil Beles , the capital of the Metekel Zone. Previously one had to travel through Wollega and Gojjam in the neighboring regions of Oromia and Amhara ,

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