 By late February, the Zonal authorities planned to aid 16,615 refugees in five kebeles, although the Federal Disaster Prevention and Preparation Committee provided assistance to only 5,000 people.The 2007 national census reported a total population for this woreda of 133,939, of whom 68,512 were men and 65,427 were women; 3,272 or 2.44% of its population were urban dwellers.The majority of the inhabitants said they were Muslim, with 88.47% of the population reporting they observed this belief, while 10.04% of the population practised Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity.