The Ethiopian Central Statistical Authority (CSA) has estimated the July 2008 population of the Afar Administrative Region at 1,449,000, of which 137,000 are urban residents. [1]. The breakdown by gender (803,000 males vs. 646,000 females) either stands out as a glaring example of data errors that produced highly lopsided numbers by sex, or suggests a troubling scenario of a harsh survival environment for female members of the population. The numbers suggest a sex ratio of 124 (males per 100 females) often found among populations who have suffered a level of societal disruption such as excessive gender-specific migration, or excessive gender-specific mortality. There are no studies suggesting disproportionately female out-migrations from the Afar Administration Region, thus leaving us to ponder whether the force of mortality may explain this curious finding. We will pursue this point later. 

The Afar live in the three neighboring Horn-of-Africa countries - Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Djibouti - and are variously described as “fearless’, “tough”, “aggressive”, “territorial” etc, all in the spirit of highlighting the tireless adherence of the Afar to a pastoral tradition handed down from successive generations, and a devotion to the defense of a way of life in a forbiddingly hostile homeland. Here is how Virginia Morrel, on assignment for the National Geographic magazine described them [2]:


“The desert may have struck me as hellish, but for them it was their gift from Allah—land and grass and water that gave them life and that they, in turn, would lay down their lives for. And, indeed, young Afar men were dying for it regularly; we heard of battles and killings throughout our six-week stay in the desert. …Strength of mind and body were really all anyone required for survival in the desert…. For them it was perfectly natural to live in a land of firebrick-red and black stones, where it hadn't rained in over a year, where every Afar had lost most of his camels because of the severe drought, and where any living green thing popped out at you like the Hope Diamond. There was really nothing to it, except that you must be brave and you must fight. "In our history we have always been fighters," Edris said one afternoon, joining in Ma'ar's discussion. "We live in the desert, and because it's a hard land, we must fight, even though killing is against the law of Allah. And when we fight, we use whatever we have: guns and knives, rocks and sticks. We will even bite with our teeth. You use everything when you fight against your enemies."  

"We are the people who move," one woman said. "From the beginning that has been our way." Nor is there really any other way to survive in Afar Land, or Cafar-barro as the Afar call it, particularly if you depend on a diet of camel and goat milk as they do. Less than seven inches of rain falls each year in the Danakil, often in a sporadic manner, and the only fertile soil lies far to the south of the Lake Asele salt mines, along the Awash River, one of the unusual rivers on Earth that never make it to the sea. It sinks instead into another salt lake on the Ethiopian-Djibouti border. Aside from the garden strip of the Awash, the rest of the desert is as dry and sterile as a Martian plain.” 



The total number of the Afar (the combined population in all three countries) is estimated at 2 million, of which two-thirds live in Ethiopia.  “They are almost entirely Muslim. Their native language is Afaraf, which is of Cushitic origin. Though the Afar are divided by the borders of the three countries, they maintain close physical contact, strong sentiments of kinship, and an inclusive Afar identity” [3] This quote comes from the work by Tadesse Berhe, a retired Brigadier General, and Yonas Adaye of AAU. The authors deal with the contentious history of the Horn  of Africa in general and the simmering role of Afar grievances as a contributory factor, and at times a catalyst for the numerous sub-regional conflicts of the past, and possibly, of newer conflicts in the  future.  They cite as the main sources of instability the Affar-Issa rivalry, the struggle for power between political parties, and inter-clan conflict over resources. These, the authors say are exacerbated by “…misguided and externally imposed development strategies, the militarization of the border between Eritrea and Ethiopia and decline of traditional values and dispute settlement mechanisms” .They also document the contradictions between the aspirations of the Afar to join together as one people, and the regional governments’ - Ethiopia, Eritrea and   Djibouti – efforts to maintain national unity. They also described the geographical characteristics of the region:

 


























Much of the region is dry and rocky, unsuitable for cultivation. Out of the total area of the region (estimated at 97,250km2) cultivated and arable land constitutes 5.24%, forest 1.54%, bush and shrub 18.62%,  grassland 1.56%, marshy land 2.74%, water bodies 0.63%, and degraded and rocky land 63.7…. The region’s altitude ranges from a maximum of 1500m above sea level to a minimum of 166m below sea level. Temperature varies from 25ºC during the wet season to 48ºC during the dry season. Rainfall is erratic and scarce, and annual precipitation ranges from 200mm to 600mm. The region is frequently exposed to persistent droughts and is classified as one of the drought-affected regions in Ethiopia.


The Afar have a traditional system of leadership – sultanates – which persist to this day as the main organizing force with strong traditional following [3].   

 
•the Tajurah sultanate (the Berhanto Derder sultan) centred in Djibouti;
•Rahayto sultanate (the Danki Derder sultan) along the border of Ethiopia 
      and Djibouti;
•Aussa sultanate (the fiefdom of sultan Ali Mrah) centred at Assaita;
•Grifo sultanate centred at Bilu along the border of Ethiopia and Eritrea; and
•Gobaad sultanate in zone three (Gewane) of the Afar Region.4

A recent working paper on gender issues in the Afar region [4] noted the following:

The life expectancy among women (47 years) is far less than that of males (53 years) adding to the concern above that the highly masculine sex ratio of 124 males (per 100 females) might be the result of excess female mortality. This is the reverse of the common finding, all around the world, of a higher female than male life expectancy.
Intervention by the Afar Pastoralist Development Association (APDA), founded in 1974, is helping make a difference. It began “by intervening in primary health and quickly added the twin – component of Afar literacy/ non-formal education to enable the pastoralists to be masters of their own development.”

“The issues were:

a)From the community

- Women had never been employed
- Girls were discouraged from involving in education for fear that they would refuse
  traditionally arranged marriage
- Illiteracy ... meant that they were eager to perpetuate practices such as
  Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), forced marriage, blood- letting and so on.


b)From the government

- Suspicion on the overall program with the pastoralists since it was implemented
  far from the roadway without reference to buildings. Government feared APDA
   was involved in disruptive political activities.
- The government had limited vision of pastoral development since their experts
  were non-Afar. Most of the government authorities had extremely limited
  education and no training
- Woreda and kebele officials were illiterate and not geared to project objective.

  Impacts and results

a) Use of soap, mosquito nets, iron – rich grain has improved health
b) Use of trained TBAs and the introduction of antenatal and postnatal
     checking has lowered maternal death
c) Practice of FGM has changed to the lesser, Sunni practice in most of the
    program areas. All 420 APDA – trained TBAs agreed to stop FGM and
    are monitored accordingly
d) Women are becoming more vocal on marriage problems
e) Of the entire program’s students, 41% are female”


The Population Media Center reports on a recent Afar conference [5] designed to stop female genital cutting highlights the position taken by religious leaders in pointing out that the practice is cultural and not religious (not sanctioned by Islam).  The conference did not raise the possibility of a link between female genital cutting in the Afar region, and excess female mortality, and concluded with the following resolutions (directly copied from the media center’s website) [5]:

1. We condemn all harmful traditional practices and female circumcision, of all types, as they do not have religious ground and support
2. We have committed ourselves to educate the public in mosques, schools, and other convenient places about the baseless belief that female circumcision is a religious obligation
3. We have given the responsibility of follow-up of this declaration to the Islamic Affairs Bureau, Office of the Supreme Sharia Courts and the Women’s Affairs Office of the region. We, religious leaders will do all in our capacities to mitigate and ultimately eliminate FGM
4. The role that all sector bureaus and particularly health, education, and culture and tourism bureaus can play in this endeavor is high. We thus call upon these government sectors to join their efforts in the elimination of these harmful traditional practices
5. We highly appreciate PMC and Save the Children Norway for their initiative to conduct research on harmful traditional practices in the region, its development of a four-year plan to work in Afar region and for organizing this awareness creation workshop for religious leaders. We call upon PMC to continue providing appropriate support in the future to the effort that will be to eliminate FGM in the region

The research by Bekele Hundie [6] focused on property rights among the Afar. It used secondary data sources as well as primary data gathered during interviews with 187 Afar individuals. Some of his observations include the following:


Property rights among the Afar are based on existing pastoral philosophy in which land belongs to community members defined by blood or other social ties. Clan is the lowest social unit upon which communal property rights rest including land-ownership rights and use of natural resources. 

“Each clan has its own territory, i.e. every member of a clan can tell where the boundary of his ‘home land’ is. The boundaries are usually marked by some physical objects such as mountains, rivers and bare-land. Actually, the boundaries tell only control rights (exclusion, alienation and management rights) of a clan, while mobility transcends clan territories.”

“Clan land often comprises strategic resources such as grazing areas including dry season retreats, browsing resources, and water points. In addition, each clan has also communal graveyards, settlement areas (metaro) and ritual sites.”

Pastoral areas are full of conflicts over use rights or infringements (whether perceived or actual) of those rights.

“The major cause of conflict between Afar and Karrayou is shortage of pasture and water”

Recent expansion of Amhara farm lands into the western and southwestern Afar is proving to be yet another source of conflict.  “The conflict has been exacerbated by the recent retaliatory attacks of the Amharas killing about 27 Afar women returning home from a nearby town.”

“On the eastern side, Issas are the historical enemies of the Afars. Countless bloody conflicts have been occurring between Afar and Issa since long ago….Apart from their frequent attacks to control the wet season grazing plains in Afar, the Issas are interested in the strip connecting southern Djibouti with the Addis Ababa- Djibouti highway…”

Population pressure resulting from accelerated growth rates which led to the doubling of the population in both Afar and neighboring regions in the last quarter century has led to greater need for increasingly scarce resources. 

Development has also taken its toll on traditional way of living. “As a result of state development activities such as commercial farms and wildlife parks as well as sanctuaries, pastoralists in the middle Awash valley lost large portion of their historic pastoral heritage”

Draught or its absence can have a significant effect in generating or mitigating conflicts. “Violent conflicts are most likely to happen because drought triggers fierce competition among different groups for pastoral resources thereby imposing natural scarcity.”

“In general, the role of the state becomes central not only because the state is the final arbiter and enforcer of the rule of law (e.g. respect of property rights or of human rights in the realm conflicts) but is also the actor best able to facilitate enduring alliances across the boundaries of clan, ethnicity or other categories in the socioeconomic and political spaces.”

Socio-demographic and Health indicators [7]

The HIV prevalence rate is relatively low – 2% for females and 0.6 % among males aged 15 – 49 - and equals the national average. Interestingly, however, the rate among females is almost three times as high as male rates.

The total fertility rate of 4.9 is below the national average

Calculation of the percent distribution of non-first births in the five years preceding the 2005 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) by number of months since preceding birth, according to background characteristics produced the following result for Afar (see table below). The result for Amhara is added for comparison.  The comparison shows that twice as high percentages of Afar women go from mothering the first child to the high risk endeavor of mothering the the second and third child at very short intervals (compare the percentages in the  7 to 17 months and 18 to 23 months categories). This too can be cited as as an evidence that the relative dearth of females  in the population might not be an artifact of defective data, but rather a possible reflection of higher mortality among females due in part to shorter birth intervals in the low birth-order deliveries typically relating to younger women.

      
Months Since Preceding Birth


Months7--1718-2324-3536-4748-5455-5960+

Afar    14.3  17.2 33.9   17.3     6.4   1.3    9.6
Amhara    5.4    8.5 31.5   30.4     8.4   4.0       11.7

                              Source: [7]

There has been very little change over time in the median age at birth. Afar women aged 20 - 25 during the 2005 DHS had a median age at marriage of 18.8 years, and their mothers' generation - those aged 45 - 49 at the time of the survey had a median first age at first marriage of 19.5 years.
 

Next to Somali women (3.1%), Afar women (6.6%) have the lowest percentage of members practicing any form of contraception.

Statistics on the percentage of women who heard or saw a family planning message on the radio or television, or in a newspaper or magazine in the period prior to the 2005 DHS reveals that four-fifths of Afrar women were not exposed to any of these informational outlets, and therefore remain bereft of any knowledge about family planning.

Afar women represented the second highest percentage (12.2%) of respondents living in polygamous homes where the husband had more than two wives. The place with the highest percentage of women in such marriages during the 2005 DHS was Gambella  where 15.3% of women reported being in such union.

There seems to have occurred a slight rise in minimum age at marriage among Afar women (about half a year or so) when the generation of women aged 20 - 24 in the 2005 DHS are compared with women aged 30 - 34, and 35 - 39 at the time of the survey. However, a much larger rise - about 2 years or so - has occurred in the median age at first intercourse when the 20-24 year-olds are compared to women in their thirties at the time of the survey. 

At 57% Afar women represented the highest percentage in the nation, of the most recently sexually active group of women based on their yes/no response to having engaged in sexual intercourse in the last four weeks before the 2005 DHS. This is not surprising given that Afar families move and live together most of the year.

The median number of months of postpartum amenorrhoea among Afar women  following births in the three years preceding the 2005 DHS, is 13.4 months, among the shortest in the country. The periods of postpartum abstinence, and postpartum insusceptibility are also short. 

According to the 2005 DHS results, the percentage distribution of Afar women who indicated a desire to have no children at all (currently childless) or no additional children is as follows:


Number of Children already born 0  1   2  3  4   5 6+

Percentage of women who want no more children   13.3     16.9    16.6     29.0    33.6     17.0    16.1



For Afar men the percentage distribution is as follows:


Number of Children already born0 1  2  3  4  5 6+

Percentage of men who want no more children      2.5    21.0    24.8    13.3    26.6     3.9      13.5


Only 6.6%  of Afar women's need for family planning is met - the second lowest regional percentage after the adjacent region of Somali where only 3.1 percent of the women reported that their family planning needs have been met. 

The average ideal number of children reported by Afar women (7.8) is more than double the sized desired by women in Addis Ababa. This might, on the face of it, appear to be inexplicable given the harsh environment and socioeconomic hardships faced by women, but a deeper look at the issue would lead one to surmise that calculations regarding the survival chances of infants and children, and the need to insure survival of a minimum number of children might be forcing Afar women to desire larger families. 

The infant mortality rate of 66 for Afar calculated on the basis of the 2005 DHS appears to be too low given what we know about the conditions of health and health care in the region (see table below).


Neonatal mortality(NN)  Postneonatal               Infant mortality  Child mortality  Under-five mortality
mortality        mortality (PNN) 1       (1q0)                (4q0)      (5q0)
 
   33      28                   61              66           123
  
  Source: [7]

The neighboring administrative region of Tigray appears to have the most favorable health-coverage indicators in the country. The table below compares the percentage vaccination coverage of Afar children and infants with those of Tigray. It shows, among other things, that vaccination coverage is nearly universal in Tigray with single digit percentages reporting no coverage at all, where as in Afar nearly two-fifths of infants and children (38.8%) have not received any vaccination at all.

        BCG     DPT1     DPT2     DPT3    Polio0    Polio1    Polio2    Polio3    Measles   All     No vaccinations

Affar        27.6      13.5         8.7         2.8         4.6       58.2       36.9     19.9          8.1         0.6        38.8        
Tigray      77.4      85.9        70.9       51.6       19.6       89.8       77.3      56.6       63.3       32.9          7.2   

Afar also has the second lowest proportion (9.2%) of children with diarrhea who were taken to a health provider for treatment.

Afar has the second highest proportion of women (83%) who have  had  no access to health professionals, or trained traditional birth attendants, or other help during their pregnancies in the last five years preceding the 2005 DHS. 

A questionnaire seeking to establish the percentage distribution of women who had a live birth in the five years preceding the 2005 DHS by whether the last birth was protected against tetanus or not revealed that at 83% Afar women and their infants represented the second highest percentage with no protection at all, after Somali women and infants where the proportion without vaccine protection was 88%. 

Almost 96 percent of Afra women gave birth at home. Close to 43% of the births were attended by traditional birth attendants, and another 50 percent by relatives. 

All but 52% of Afar men are either current users of tobacco, or have used it in the past. The 48% current and past use rate is the highest in the country.

The highest proportion (56.6 %) of children under five with height-for-age measures two standard deviations below the mean live in Afar.

Over 90% of Afar women are circumcised, 85% have at least one daughter circumcised (the highest percentage of any administrative region) and 33%  are classified as thin (BMI less than 18.5)

85.4% of Afar women know about, or have heard of HIV/AIDS but only 13% of Somali women and 36% of Afar women knew that HIV can be transmitted from mother to child. These numbers represent the lowest and second lowest proportions of women with such knowledge in Ethiopia. 




Ethiopian Demography and Health
References:

1.Central Statistical Authority (CSA) of Ethiopia. The 2008 National Statistics. 
            http://www.csa.gov.et/text_files/2008_national_statistics.htm
2.http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0510/feature2/index.html
3.Tadesse Berhe and Yonas Adaye. Afar. The Impact of Local Conflict on Regional Stability.  Institute for Security Studies. Pretoria,
           South  Africa.
4.Valerie Browning. Paper on working in Gender-related Issues in Afar Region, Ethiopia. Presented to SOS Sahel Workshop. Ras
           Amba Hotel. August 2005.
5.http://www.populationmedia.org/where/ethiopia/fgm-workshops/ 
6.Bekele Hundie. Property Rights among Afar Pastoralists of Northeastern Ethiopia: Forms, Changes and Conflicts. Humboldt
          University.  Berlin. http://www.ilri.org/Link/Publications/Publications/Theme%201/Pastoral%20conference/Briefs/
          Hundie_PropertyRightsAfarPastoralists_Brief_Final.pdf
7.Ethiopia. Demographic and Health Survey 2005. Central statistical Authority, Ethiiopia. ORC Marco, Cavelrton, Maryland, USA.
         2006.
AFAR
Wereda Map of Afar
If you would like to help update this page, please send comments and/or data (as an e-mail attachment) to the author :
Dr. Aynalem Adugna
at aynalemadugna@aol.com. Don't forget to indicate sources.