H 2 dissociation on ceria (CeO 2) has attracted much attention in the last years because of its potential application in catalysis for hydrogenation reactions, as well as for the stabilization of hydride bulk and surface species. The ability of ceria to split hydrogen is strongly dependent on the surface morphology. However, to the best of our knowledge, the reactivity of the cerium sesquioxide Ce 2 O 3 Atype (hexagonal structure with space group 3 1) has not been previously addressed. In the present study, we investigate (i) the formation of oxygen vacancies in ACe 2 O 3 bulk and (ii) the effect of the surface topology in the H 2 dissociation and in the oxygen vacancy formation for the four most stable surfaces of ACe 2 O 3 : (0001), (01-11), (11-20) and (11-21). Our results indicate a significant decrease of the energetic barrier for the hydrogen dissociation compared to stoichiometric CeO 2 , with an activation energy of ~0.1 eV. Interestingly, Ce 2 O 3 surfaces lead to a heterolytic product with hydride species more stable than the homolytic product, which is the opposite behavior found in CeO 2. These results suggest a better performance of Ce 2 O 3 than CeO 2 for H 2 dissociation and provide insight in the nature of hydride-Ce 2 O 3 interfaces that could be important intermediates in the formation of CeH x phases from cerium oxide.