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Raya Azebo

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Raya Azebo
ራያ ዓዘቦ
Woreda
Flag of Raya Azebo
Flag
Location of Raya Azebo
RegionTigray
ZoneDebubawi (Southern)
Area
 • Total2,132.83 km2 (823.49 sq mi)
Population
 (2007)
 • Total135,870

Raya Azebo (Tigrinya: ራያ ዓዘቦ) is one of the woredas (districts) in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Located in the Debubawi Zone at the eastern edge of the Ethiopian highlands, Raya Azebo is part of the Southern Tigray Region. The administrative center of this woreda is Mekoni. Other towns in Raya Azebo include Weyra Wuha, Chercher, Adi Abdera, Kukufto, Bala and Hade Alga.

According to historical books & historical maps, Tigray state's border has always been Alewha river (i.e."አልዉሃ ምላሽ"), which includes the land after Raya Azebo (i.e. Kobo district, also called Raya-Kobo). However, Kobo district have not yet been returned to Tigray state until today.[1][2]


History

Raya historically has always been mainly inhabited by Tigrayan people, and it has always been part of the old Tigray province governance (including during Yohannes IV's reign). And before all this, it was part of Kingdom of Axum where its capital city was Axum.[3] However, at the mid of Haile Selassie's rule of Ethiopia (around 1941 and 1943), Raya (i.e. Lasta & Wag) and Welkait were taken away from the old Tigray state and they were given to Begemder and to Welo provinces. One of the reasons why Raya was given to Welo was because Haile Selassie's son Crown Prince Amha Selassie was appointed as the governor of Welo. Welkait and some other provinces were given to Begemder since there was armed rebellion in Tigray against Haile Selassie's rule (so it was part of the effort to divide and rule Tigrayans). Therefore, from 1943 until the 1995 constitution ratification, Raya was part of Welo province. Raya was then split into two parts once ethnic federalism was established in Ethiopia (on 1995). One of the two parts with an Amhara majority (Kobo district) went to the new Amhara Region, the other (Raya Azebo) which had a majority of Tigrayans was returned to Tigray Region (like it was for most of the 3000 years history of Ethiopia that had Tigrayans-who are direct decedents of Axumits[4]- [5][6][7], before Haile Selassie changed it on 1941/1943).[8][9][10]

According to historical books, Tigray state's south-eastern border has always been Alewha river (i.e."አልዉሃ ምላሽ"), which includes the land after Raya Azebo (i.e. Kobo district, also called Raya-Kobo). However, Kobo province have not yet been returned to Tigray state.[1][2]

The decline of the Tigrayan population in Ethiopia during Haile Selassie's reign – in particular in districts of the former Tigray province, which are given to the present-day Amhara Region, like Addi Arkay (woreda), Kobo (woreda) & Sanja (woreda) – is likely to have been as a result of Haile Selassie's suppression and systematic persecution against non-Amhara ethnic peoples of Ethiopia (in particular, his immense systematic persecution of Tigrayans). For example, on the 1958 famine of Tigray, Haile Selassie refused to send any significant basic emergency food aid to Tigray province despite having the resources to; as a consequence, over 100,000 people died of the famine (in Tigray province).[11][12][13]

Later on, the Mengistu Haile Mariam-led brutal military dictatorship (Derg) also used the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia as government policy (by restricting food supplies) for counter-insurgency strategy (against Tigray People's Liberation Front guerrilla-soldiers), and for "social transformation" in non-insurgent areas (against people of Tigray province, Welo province and such).[14][15][16] Due to organized government policies that deliberately multiplied the effects of the famine, around 1.2 million people died in Ethiopia from this famine where most of the death tolls were from Tigray province (and other parts of northern Ethiopia).[17][18][19]

Since May 2018, different groups of youths in Amhara Region have started robbing food/grain loads from trucks heading to supply Tigray region, in an effort to starve Tigrayans & further depopulate Tigray region, as they claim. It is part of these Amhara youths' rhetoric to take away more lands from Tigray Region (especially from Welkait district & from Raya district). The youths are also blocking roads which lead to Tigray region, but the Amhara regional government and Abiy Ahmed Ali's new federal government administration has turned a blind eye to their lawlessness. (Since June 2018, the Amhara state TV has even started echoing these rhetorics. Following these rhetorics, over 70,000 Tigrayans have been barbarically killed or displaced in Ethiopia, where the majority of these Tigrayan victims were in Amhara Region.)[20]


Demographics

Based on the 2007 national census conducted by the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA), this woreda has a total population of 135,870, an increase of 55.04% over the 1994 census, of whom 67,687 are men and 68,183 women; 16,056 or 11.82% are urban inhabitants. With an area of 2,132.83 square kilometers, Raya Azebo has a population density of 63.70, which is greater than the Zone average of 53.91 persons per square kilometer. A total of 32,360 households were counted in this woreda, resulting in an average of 4.20 persons to a household, and 31,468 housing units. 70.61% of the population said they were Orthodox Christians, and 29.32% were Muslim.[21]

The 1994 national census reported a total population for this woreda of 87,638 of whom 43,259 were men and 44,379 were women; 8,047 or 9.18% of its population were urban dwellers. The four largest ethnic groups reported in Raya Azebo were the Tigrayans (87.21%), the Amhara (9.77%), the Afar (1.55%), and the Oromo (1.4%); all other ethnic groups made up 0.07% of the population. Tigrinya was spoken as a first language by 85.52%, 11.04% Amharic, 1.83% Oromo, and 1.53% spoke Afar; the remaining 0.08% spoke all other primary languages reported. 69.15% of the population practiced Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, and 30.82% were Muslim. Concerning education, 8.44% of the population were considered literate, which is less than the Zone average of 15.71%; 14.64% of children aged 7-12 were in primary school; 0.9% of the children aged 13-14 were in junior secondary school; and 0.31% of the inhabitants aged 15-18 were in senior secondary school. Concerning sanitary conditions, 56.9% of the urban houses and 13.4% of all houses had access to safe drinking water at the time of the census; 20.6% of the urban and about 4.7% of the total had toilet facilities.[22]

References

  1. ^ a b "BBC-News, "-ኢሳይያስ መቐለ ከይረኣየ ብምኻዱ ብጣዕሚ ኣሕዚኑኒ- ዶ/ር ሰሎሞን ዕንቋይ"".
  2. ^ a b "ኣብራሃም ብርሃነ, "ኣርካን፡ነጋድራስ ገብረሕይወት ባይከዳኝ፡ድሕሪ ሓደ ዘመን!"" (PDF).
  3. ^ "The British Museum, "The wealth of Africa:- The kingdom of Aksum"" (PDF).
  4. ^ Stuart Munro-Hay, Aksum: A Civilization of Late Antiquity (Edinburgh: University Press, 1991), pp. 57
  5. ^ "Bernard Leeman, THE REALM OF D'MT - ONE AND THE SAME AS QUEEN YODIT'S DAMOT?".
  6. ^ Shaw, Thurstan (1995), The Archaeology of Africa: Food, Metals and Towns, Routledge, p. 612, ISBN 978-0-415-11585-8
  7. ^ "The British Museum, "The wealth of Africa:- The kingdom of Aksum"" (PDF).
  8. ^ Bereket Habte Selassie, "Constitutional Development in Ethiopia", Journal of African Law, 10 (1966), p. 79.
  9. ^ "Sarah Vaughan, "Ethnicity and Power in Ethiopia", PhD dissertation, p. 123, 2003" (PDF).
  10. ^ The 1994 Population and Housing Census of Ethiopia Results for Tigray Region. Vol. 1. Addis Ababa: Central Statistical Authority. 1995. p. 70.
  11. ^ "Bahru Zewde, [London: James Currey, 1991], p. 196. "A History of Modern Ethiopia: 1855–1974"".
  12. ^ "Peter Gill, p.26 & p.27. "Famine and Foreigners: Ethiopia Since Live Aid"" (PDF).
  13. ^ "Mesfin Wolde Mariam, "Rural Vulnerability to Famine in Ethiopia: 1958-77"".
  14. ^ de Waal 1991, p. 4–6.
  15. ^ Young 2006, p. 132.
  16. ^ "Peter Gill, page.43 "Famine and Foreigners: Ethiopia Since Live Aid"" (PDF).
  17. ^ "Peter Gill, page.44 "Famine and Foreigners: Ethiopia Since Live Aid"" (PDF).
  18. ^ "Dawit Wolde Giorgis, "Red Tears: War, Famine, and Revolution in Ethiopia"".
  19. ^ de Waal 1991, p. 5.
  20. ^ "International Organization for Migration, "Ethiopia: Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) Tigray Region, Round 14: November – December 2018 - Summary of Key Findings"".
  21. ^ Census 2007 Tables: Tigray Region, Tables 2.1, 3.1, 3.2, 3.4.
  22. ^ 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 (accessed 30 December 2008)
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