Dila, Ethiopia

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Dila is a market town in southern Ethiopia. The capital of the Gedeo Zone in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region, and located on the main road from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, this town has a longitude and latitude of 6°25′N 38°19′E.

Based on figures from the Central Statistical Agency in 2005, Dila has an estimated total population of 61,114 of whom 31,329 were males and 29,785 were females.[1] According to the 1994 national census, the town had a population of 33,734. It is the largest settlement in Wenago woreda.

Dila is the site of the Dilla College of Teachers' Education, which was founded in 1996 and is part of Debub University. The college also includes a program to teach health sciences. A number of archeologically significant stelae fields are in the surrounding area, the most notable groups being those at Tutu Fella and Tutiti.

Until the completion in the early 1970s of the tarmac road to the Kenya border, Dila had been located the southern end of the all-weather road from Addis Ababa and thus became the major transfer and marketing point for coffee grown farther south, particularly of the much-prized Yirga Cheffe varietal (see coffee varietals). It remains a major center of the coffee trade.

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