kebele

A kebele (, qäbäle, "neighbourhood") is the smallest administrative unit of Ethiopia similar to a ward, a neighbourhood or a localized and delimited group of people. It is part of a woreda, or district, itself usually part of a Zone, which in turn are grouped into one of the Regions based on ethno-linguistic communities (or kililoch) that comprise the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. Each kebele consists of at least five hundred families, or the equivalent of 3,500 to 4,000 persons. There is at least one in every town with more than 2,000 population. A keftanya, or representative, had jurisdiction over six to twelve kebeles.