Kobo (woreda)

Kobo is one of the 105 woredas in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Semien Wollo Zone, Kobo is bordered on the south by Guba Lafto, on the west by Gidan, and on the north and east by the Afar Region. Towns in Kobo include Gobiye, Kobo and Robit.

The landscape of this woreda is characterized by a broad fertile plain which is separated from the lowlands of the Afar Region by a mountain range; the altitude of Kobo ranges from 900 to 2400 meters above sea level. [Svein Ege, [http://www.svt.ntnu.no/ethiopia/c05xNorthWoloMap.pdf "North Wälo 1:100,000. Topographic and administrative map of North Wälo Zone, Amhara Region, Ethiopia"] . Trondheim, NTNU, 2002]

Based on figures published by the Central Statistical Agency in 2005, this woreda has an estimated total population of 247,672, of whom 123,595 were males and 124,077 were females; 49,915 or 20.15% of its population are urban dwellers, which is greater than the Zone average of 8.9%. With an estimated area of 1,940.31 square kilometers, Kobo has an estimated population density of 127.6 people per square kilometer, which is greater than the Zone average of 105.59. [ [http://www.csa.gov.et/text_files/2005_national_statistics.htm CSA 2005 National Statistics] , Tables B.3 and B.4]

The woreda Agriculture and Rural Development Office announced 8 April 2007 that it was starting a program to improve the livelihood of woreda inhabitants, affecting 53,000 farmers. This would use 23.3 million birr of Regional funds to develop basin and degraded mountains, construct all weather roads and irrigation diversion canals, improve springs as well as various "water harvesting structures". A similar program initiated a few years previously led to a decline in the number of farmers migrating to the Afar Region, Djibouti and Sudan. [ [http://www.waltainfo.com/EnNews/2007/Apr/08Apr07/27213.htm "Woreda implementing over 23mln birr food security projects"] (Walta Information Center)]

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