Ayesha is one of the 47 woredas in the Somali Region of Ethiopia. The northernmost woreda of the Shinile Zone, Ayesha is bordered on the south by Dembel, on the southwest by Shinile, on the west by Erer, on the north by Djibouti, on the east by Somalia, and on the southeast by the Jijiga Zone. Towns in Ayesha include Ayesha, Dewele, Lasarat and Mermedebis.
The average elevation in this woreda is 766 meters above sea level.[1] As of 2008[update], Ayesha has 180 kilometers of all-weather gravel road and 287.2 kilometers of community roads; about 20% of the total population has access to drinking water.[2] The track of the Addis Ababa - Djibouti Railway crosses this woreda, following the canyon cut by the Ayesha River in a southern direction, then turns southwest into Shinile just before reaching Adigale.
In mid April 2006, floods were reported to have displaced up to 3,000 people in Laserat. According to woreda officials, the floods destroyed more than 190 houses and killed as many as 500 head of livestock.[3] The Ethiopian De-mining Office reported in November 2008 that it had cleared land mines planted in Ayesha as part of the four million square meters of land the office had cleared in the Somali Region.[4]
Based on figures published by the Central Statistical Agency in 2005, this woreda has an estimated total population of 58,714, of whom 29,833 are men and 28,881 women; 9,800 or 16.7% of its population are urban dwellers, which is less than the Zone average of 17.6%. Information is not available for the area of Ayesha, so its population density cannot be calculated.[5] Ayesha is primarily inhabited by the Dir clan of the Somali people.
The 1994 national census reported a total population for this woreda of 46,605, of whom 23,305 were men and 23,300 were women; 6,577 or 14.11% were urban inhabitants. The largest ethnic group reported in Ayesha was the Somali people of the Issa clan with also Gadabuursi and Gurgure inhabitants(95.99%).[6]
|
|||||||