Konso Zone

A 1996 United Nations Development Programme Emergencies Unit for Ethiopia report divided the area of this special woreda "by differences of altitude and economic exploitation", which are the "semi-arid lowland areas supporting the majority of the population (between 60-70 percent); and agricultural uplands in the middle altitude supporting the rest of the primarily cultivating population.

"[3] The native Konso traditionally practice a distinct and sustainable form of agriculture that involves the building and maintaining of stone terraces, and fertilizing the fields with manure.

[6] The Konso area, formerly a woreda, has had a number of boundary disputes with adjacent administrative units.

According to Sarah Vaughan, the "most serious of these concerns Teltele district, claimed since 1992 by [the] Borana zone of Oromia" which has been ongoing since 1992.

Then on 12 October, government militias acting on the authority of local officials arrested the chairman of the KPDU, Shako Otto Kora, in Karati and detained him for six days.

The local officials accused him of "disturbing development activities" for visiting one of his party's branch offices that had been closed.

[9] The Sudan Times reported that on 14 May 2008 continuing conflict between the Konso and Borena Oromo left 36 people dead and forced more than 5,000 inhabitants to flee their homes.

"Among the dead, 35 of them belong to Konso tribes" Areke Geyto, the administrator of the special woreda told local reporters.

In November 2018, after Abiy Ahmed became prime minister of Ethiopia, the SNNPRS Council made Konso into a zone.

[2][11] Based on the 2007 Census conducted by the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA), this woreda has a total population of 235,087, of whom 113,412 are men and 121,675 women.