Abergele or Tanqua Abergele is one of the 36 woredas in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Mehakelegnaw Zone, Abergele is bordered on the south and west by the Amhara Region, then by the Tekezé River on the west, on the north by Kola Tembien, on the east by Degua Tembien and on the southeast by the Debubawi (Southern) Zone. The administrative center of this woreda is Yechila; other towns in Abergele include Agbe.
Abergele is named for the historic district of Abergele, which Francisco Álvares notes had been part of Begemder, but was divided from it a few years before he arrived in Ethiopia in 1520. About a century later, Pedro Páez recorded that Abergele paid only a little less tribute than neighboring Tembien.[1] The Tanqua River, which originates near Hagere Selam, flows through this woreda and joins the Geba just north of Jijike.
Based on the 2007 national census conducted by the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA), this woreda has a total population of 93,185, an increase of 59.64% over the 1994 census, of whom 47,512 are men and 45,673 women; 7,035 or 7.55% are urban inhabitants. With an area of 2,407.88 square kilometers, Abergele has a population density of 38.70, which is less than the Zone average of 56.29 persons per square kilometer. A total of 19,775 households were counted in this woreda, resulting in an average of 4.71 persons to a household, and 18,767 housing units.[2]
The 1994 national census reported a total population for this woreda of 58,373, of whom 29,541 were men and 28,832 were women; 2,334 or 4% of its population were urban dwellers. The two largest ethnic groups reported in Abergele were the Tigrayan (97.93%), and the Agaw Kamyr (1.82%); all other ethnic groups made up 0.25% of the population. Tigrinya was spoken as a first language by 98.17%, and 1.43% spoke Kamyr; the remaining 0.4% spoke all other primary languages reported. 99.83% of the population practiced Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, and 0.12% were Muslim. Concerning education, 5.92% of the population were considered literate, which is less than the Zone average of 14.21%; 4.04% of children aged 7-12 were in primary school; a negligible number of the children aged 13-14 were in junior secondary school, and a negligible number of the inhabitants aged 15-18 were in senior secondary school. Concerning sanitary conditions, about 72% of the urban houses and 19% of all houses had access to safe drinking water at the time of the census; none of the urban and 1.6% of the total had toilet facilities.[3]
A sample enumeration performed by the CSA in 2001 interviewed 15,123 farmers in this woreda, who held an average of 1.63 hectares of land. Of the 24,690 hectares of private land surveyed, 87.36% was in cultivation, 0.21% pasture, 10.72% fallow, and 1.72% was devoted to other uses. For the land under cultivation in this woreda, 81.93% was planted in cereals, 2.34% in pulses, 2.92% in oilseeds, and 0.02% in vegetables. Four hectares were planted in fruit trees and 18 in gesho. 89.37% of the farmers both raised crops and livestock, while 10.15% only grew crops and 0.48% only raised livestock. Land tenure in this woreda is distributed amongst 84.81% owning their land, and 14.9% renting; the percentage reported as holding their land under other forms of tenure is missing.[4]
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