List of Towns, Villages and Cities in Mao-Komo special woreda

Mao-Komo is the southernmost district of Ethiopia’s Benishangul-Gumuz Region and the seat of its administration is Tongo. It counted 50,061 people at the 2007 census and about 72,600 under the 2022 CSA projection, across 1,793 square kilometres and 32 kebeles.

Mao-Komo is a special woreda: it belongs to none of the region’s three zones and reports directly to the regional government, an arrangement used in Ethiopia for districts held by a distinct minority people. It is named for the Mao and Komo, who together with the Berta and Fadashi make up most of the population.

Towns & Kebeles

Mao-Komo has 32 kebele administrations and one town of any size. Tongo is the administrative seat and the trading centre, and its weekly market draws sellers from across the woreda and from the Oromia border districts. Tongo also hosts a refugee camp, described below.

The remaining kebeles are farming hamlets, most of them off the asphalt and reached by tracks. No verified list of their names is published in any national gazetteer, so none are listed here rather than risk printing names that cannot be checked. Only 3,392 people, or 6.78 percent of the 2007 population, lived in an urban place at all, the lowest urban share in the region.

Geography

Mao-Komo occupies the corner where Ethiopia meets both Sudan and South Sudan. It is bordered on the west by Sudan and South Sudan, on the north by Asosa Zone, and on the east and south by the Oromia Region, chiefly Kelam Welega Zone.

The land is split between hills in the east and lowland savanna running west to the border. That split follows the settlement pattern: Oromo households farm the higher ground, while the Mao, Komo, Berta and Fadashi live mainly in the lowland savanna. Streams here drain west towards the Blue Nile system in Sudan, and most run only in the rains.

Demographics

The 2007 census recorded 50,061 residents, 25,055 men and 25,006 women. The 2022 projection is about 72,600.

The five largest groups were the Oromo (35.1 percent), Mao (26.42 percent), Berta (18.8 percent), Kwama or Komo (14.46 percent) and Fadashi (4.12 percent). Oromo was the first language of 47.51 percent, ahead of Berta at 17.47 percent, Mao at 15.61 percent, Kwama at 13.7 percent and Fadashi at 4.91 percent. Mao, Komo, Berta and Fadashi are all minority languages with few speakers outside this corner of the country.

Islam is close to universal here: 94.56 percent of residents were Muslim in 2007, with Protestants at 2.64 percent and Ethiopian Orthodox Christians at 2.13 percent. That makes Mao-Komo the most uniformly Muslim district in Benishangul-Gumuz.

Economy & Local Life

Farming supports almost every household. Sorghum and maize are the staples, sesame is the main crop grown for cash, and mango and other fruit trees stand around the homesteads. Households keep goats and a few cattle, and honey is collected from log hives in the woodland.

Artisanal gold panning along the seasonal streams brings in cash between harvests, as it does across the western lowlands. Trade runs east into Oromia through Begi as much as north to Asosa, and the Tongo market on its weekly day is the main event in the local calendar.

Refugees at Tongo

Tongo refugee camp lies inside the woreda and has housed 12,483 people displaced from Sudan and South Sudan. It is one of several camps in Benishangul-Gumuz serving arrivals across the western border, and it puts a settlement of camp size next to a district whose own urban population is under 3,500.

Getting There

Tongo is reached either from Asosa in the north, through Bambasi and then south on gravel, or from the Oromia side through Begi in Kelam Welega. Both approaches leave asphalt well before the town. Journeys are slowest between June and September, when the rains cut the unsurfaced sections.

There is no airport in the woreda. The nearest scheduled flights land at Asosa, which is also the nearest place to change money or find a bank branch of any size.

FAQ

Where is Mao-Komo special woreda?

In the far south-west of the Benishangul-Gumuz Region in western Ethiopia, on the border with both Sudan and South Sudan, at roughly 9°30′N 34°20′E.

What is a special woreda?

A district that sits outside any zone and reports directly to the regional government. Ethiopia uses the status for districts held by a distinct minority people. Benishangul-Gumuz has two: Mao-Komo and Pawe.

What is the main town in Mao-Komo?

Tongo, the administrative seat, which holds a weekly market and hosts Tongo refugee camp.

What is the population of Mao-Komo?

50,061 at the 2007 census, projected to about 72,600 for 2022. Only 6.78 percent lived in towns in 2007.

What languages are spoken in Mao-Komo?

Oromo is the first language of about 48 percent of residents, followed by Berta, Mao, Kwama (Komo) and Fadashi. The last four are minority languages spoken almost nowhere else.

How many kebeles are in Mao-Komo?

Thirty-two kebele administrations.