Kurfa Chele (woreda)

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Kurfa Chele is one of the 180 woredas in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia. It is named after the capital, Kurfa Chele.

Part of the Misraq (East) Hararghe Zone, Kurfa Chele is bordered on the south by Girawa, on the west by Bedeno, on the northwest by Kersa, and on the northeast by Haro Maya. Towns include Dawe.

The altitude of this woreda ranges from 1400 to 3400 meters above sea level; Gara Muleta, Dedero and Gebiba are amongst the highest points. Rivers include the Dawe, Gefra Gelana and Gefra. A survey of the land in Kurfa Chele (released in 1995/96) shows that 23.3% is arable or cultivable, 1.4% pasture, 14.7% forest, and the remaining 60.6% is considered built-up, degraded or otherwise unusable. Khat and vegetables are important cash crops.^[1].

Industry in the woreda includes 9 grain mills employing 29 people, as well as 68 registered businesses including wholesalers, retailers and service providers. There were 14 Farmers Associations with 8714 members and one Farmers Service Cooperatives with 627 members. Kurfa Chele has 96 kilometers of dry-weather and 55 of all-weather road, for an average road density of 581 kilometers per 1000 square kilometers, the highest in the Zone. About 23.4% rural and 4.2% of the urban population have access to drinking water; normally urban areas in Ethiopia have a larger percentage with access to drinkable water than rural.^[2]

Based on figures published by the Central Statistical Agency in 2005, this woreda has an estimated total population of 54,127, of whom 26,500 were males and 27,627 were females; 4,940 or 9.13% of its population are urban dwellers, which is greater than the Zone average of 6.9%. With an estimated area of 259.69 square kilometers, Kurfa Chele has an estimated population density of 208.4 people per square kilometer, which is greater than the Zone average of 102.6.^[3]

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