Kofele

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Kofele is a town in southern Ethiopia, and the administrative center of the Kofele woreda. Located in the Arsi Zone of the Oromia Region, this town has a latitude and longitude of 7°00′N, 38°45′E with an elevation of 2695 meters above sea level.

According to the Oromia state government, there are two telephone stations and a post office agent in Kofele. Primary, junior secondary and senior secondary schools are present, as well as medical and veterinary clinics. Although electricity is available, there are no fuel stations, banks or insurance organizations in Kofele.^[1]

Based on figures from the Central Statistical Agency in 2005, this town has an estimated total population of 13,127 of whom 6,690 were males and 6,437 were females.^[2] The 1994 national census reported this town had a total population of 2,563 of whom 1,252 were males and 1,311 were females.

Kofele was founded on the orders of Balambaras Chakiiso Tuuri in the 1910s; Waako Oborra laid out the market where the town has since occupied. The community was important at the beginning as an assembly point for long-distance caravans because of its water, grazing and strategic location. In the 1930s, Swedish missionaries operated a small school in Kofele; they returned to the town after the Italian occupation. By 1956, however, the road connecting Kofele to Shashamene remained so poor that it took 6 hours to drive the 25 kilometers.^[3]

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