Xamir people

The Xamir people are an ethnic group in Ethiopia and are one of the Agaw peoples. The Xamir live in Wag Hemra Zone in the Amhara Region. The three main towns in that area are Sekota, Tsizika, and Dehana.

Population

The 2007 census lists 267,851 ethnic Xamirs, or 0.36% of the total population; 32,665 are urban inhabitants.

Language

The Xamirs speak Xamtanga, one of the Agaw languages, which are part of the Cushitic subfamily within Afroasiatic. Agaw languages form the main substratum influence on Amharic and other Ethiopian Semitic languages, which are also Afroasiatic languages.