List of Towns, Villages and Cities in Itang (woreda)

Itang is a special woreda in Ethiopia’s Gambela Region, on the Baro River west of Gambela city, and its centre is Itang town. It counted 35,686 people at the 2007 census and about 55,500 under the 2022 CSA projection, in 2,188.34 square kilometres.

Itang belongs to none of the region’s three zones and reports directly to the regional government. It sits on the boundary between Anuak and Nuer country, and it hosts three of the largest refugee camps in Ethiopia, which between them hold several times the woreda’s own population.

Towns & Kebeles

Itang town is the administrative centre and the only settlement of any size. It stands on the north bank of the Baro, which is also called the Openo or Upeno, at 480 metres, and a 2005 estimate put its population at 3,601. Terfam kebele, west of the town, holds the refugee camps.

The rest of the woreda is farming and herding hamlets strung along the river and the Gambela road. No verified list of their names is published in a national gazetteer, so none are set out here rather than print names that cannot be checked against a second source.

Geography

Itang is flat lowland at around 400 to 500 metres, grassland and marsh cut by the Baro. Much of it floods in the May-to-October rains. The Alwero River forms part of the southern boundary.

The woreda is bordered on the south and south-east by Anuak Zone, on the west by Nuer Zone, on the north-west by South Sudan, and on the north by the Oromia Region. Gambela city lies about 45 minutes east by road.

Refugee Camps

Itang hosts Kule, Tierkidi and Nguenyyiel, three of the seven camps in Gambela that together housed about 338,700 South Sudanese refugees. At the end of June 2020, Nguenyyiel held 83,616 people, Tierkidi 64,898 and Kule 45,399 — close to 194,000 in total, several times the woreda’s own resident population.

This is not new ground. During the Second Sudanese Civil War in the 1980s, the original Itang camp was for a period the largest refugee camp in the world. The current camps date from the South Sudanese conflict that began in December 2013.

The scale of the camps has reshaped local services. The Itang Integrated Water Project, built by the regional water bureau with UNICEF, UNHCR and the refugee agency, was the first scheme in Ethiopia to pipe water to refugee camps and neighbouring host towns from one system. Aid funding for the Gambela operation came under severe strain from 2025.

Demographics

The 2007 census recorded 35,686 residents, 17,955 men and 17,731 women. That was a 190.14 percent increase on the 1994 count, one of the steepest rises recorded for any Ethiopian district over that period, and the 2022 projection is about 55,500.

Itang straddles the Anuak–Nuer boundary and both peoples live in the woreda, along with smaller highland communities. The 1994 census recorded Itang town itself as 53.7 percent Anuak, 28.54 percent Nuer, 6.79 percent Oromo, 6.41 percent Amhara and 1.57 percent Tigrayan. No comparable ethnic breakdown is published for the woreda as a whole, and the town figures should not be read as covering the rural kebeles.

Economy & Local Life

Households farm maize and sorghum on flood-retreat plots along the Baro, fish the river, and keep cattle and goats. Fishing matters more here than in most of Ethiopia, and dried fish moves east to Gambela city.

The camps are now the largest economic fact in the woreda. They supply wage work, contracts and a captive market for firewood, charcoal, grain and building poles, and they also put heavy pressure on woodland, grazing and water. Itang town’s market serves both host and refugee populations.

Getting There

Itang is on the main road west from Gambela city, the route that continues to Jikawo and Lare in Nuer Zone. It is the easiest part of western Gambela to reach, and the section from Gambela was among the stretches upgraded under the road project launched in 2008.

Gambela is about 766 km from Addis Ababa by road via Nekemte, Bedele and Metu, and has scheduled Ethiopian Airlines flights. There is no airport at Itang. Unsurfaced sections west of the town become difficult in the long rains.

FAQ

Where is Itang special woreda?

In western Ethiopia, in the Gambela Region, on the Baro River west of Gambela city and close to the South Sudanese border.

Why is Itang a special woreda?

Because it sits outside the region’s three zones and reports directly to the regional government, rather than through a zone administration.

What is the population of Itang?

35,686 at the 2007 census, projected to about 55,500 for 2022. The refugee camps in the woreda hold many times that number.

Which refugee camps are in Itang?

Kule, Tierkidi and Nguenyyiel, in Terfam kebele. In June 2020 they held about 194,000 South Sudanese refugees between them.

Which river runs through Itang?

The Baro, also known as the Openo or Upeno. The Alwero forms part of the southern boundary.

How do you get to Itang?

By road west from Gambela city, about 45 minutes, on the route towards Jikawo and Lare. Gambela is the nearest airport.