Jan Amora (Ge'ez: ጃን አሞራ jān āmōrā, Amharic: "Royal eagle") is one of the 105 woredas in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Semien Gondar Zone, Jan Amora is bordered on the south by Belessa, on the southwest by Wegera, on the west by Debarq, on the north by Addi Arkay, and on the east by Beyeda. The administrative center of Jan Amora is Mekane Berhan.
The place name Jan Amora appears in the Futuh al-Habasha and in an 18th century legal text, but it is unclear if they refer to the place that became this woreda; Richard Pankhurst believes that this "Jan Amora" was located in Tigray. [1] There was also a military formation known as "Jan Amora" which was under the command of Emperor Lebna Dengel's uncle Azaj Fanoel.
The Jan Amora region today covers the Semien Mountains and a portion of their southern slopes, which makes access to this woreda difficult. A road linking Jan Amora and Debarq, 60 kilometers in length, was under construction in May 1994.[2] Due to its inaccessibility and the lack of the most basic infrastructure, in 1999 the Regional government classified Addi Arkay as one of its 47 drought prone and food insecure woredas. To alleviate this situation, the Amhara Credit and Saving Institution SC, a micro-finance institution, opened an office in the woreda in the late 1990s.[3] The Semien Mountains cover most of the northern part of this woreda, as well as the Semien Mountains National Park.
Based on the 2007 national census conducted by the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA), this woreda has a total population of 167,757, an increase of 33.65% over the 1994 census, of whom 84,456 are men and 83,301 women; 5,057 or 3.01% are urban inhabitants. With an area of 1,737.24 square kilometers, Jan Amora has a population density of 96.57, which is greater than the Zone average of 63.76 persons per square kilometer. A total of 36,361 households were counted in this woreda, resulting in an average of 4.61 persons to a household, and 35,389 housing units.[4]
The 1994 national census reported a total population for this woreda of 125,516 in 26,918 households, of whom 63,335 were men and 62,181 women; 1,584 or 1.26% of its population were urban dwellers at the time. The largest ethnic group reported in Jan Amora was the Amhara (99.8%), and Amharic was spoken as a first language by 99.76%. The majority of the inhabitants practiced Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, with 93.81% reporting that as their religion, while 6.1% of the population said they were Muslim.[5]
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