Afder is bordered on the southwest by the Ganale Dorya River which separates it from the Liben Zone, on the west by the Oromia Region, on the north by Nogob Zone, on the northeast by Shabele Zone, and on south by the Somalia federal states of Hirshabelle, South West and Jubaland.

The administrative center of Afder is Hargele;[citation needed] other towns in Afder include West Imey, and Cherti Based on the 2007 census conducted by the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA), the zone had a total population of 570,629, of whom 325,764 were men and 244,865 women.

[3] According to a May 24, 2004, World Bank memorandum, none of the inhabitants of Afder had access to electricity, the zone has a road density of 8.3 kilometers per 1,000 square kilometers, the average rural household had 0.6 hectare of land (compared to the national average of 1.01 hectare of land and an average of 2.25 for pastoral regions)[4] and the equivalent of 3.1 head of livestock.

[5] In April 2006, in partnership with Al-Nejah Relief, CHF International began a program to restore shallow wells and improve sanitation habits in the Afder and Gode zones of the Somali region.

[7] For the Somali region, the CSA generated estimated figures for the livestock population (cattle, sheep, goats, camels and equids) and their distribution by commissioning an aerial survey.