Basics:
Official country name: Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
Area: 435,186 sq miles (1,127,127 sq km)
Population: 76.5 million (2007 est.)
Median age: 18.1
Ethnic Groups: Oromo 32.1%, Amara 30.1%, Tigraway 6.2%, Somalie 5.9%, Guragie 4.3%, Sidama 3.5%, Welaita 2.4%, other 15.4% (1994 census, CIA Factbook)
GDP and GDP per capita: $19.4 billion and $253 (2007 estimates)
Languages: Amarigna 32.7%, Oromigna 31.6%, Tigrigna 6.1%, Somaligna 6%, Guaragigna 3.5%, Sidamigna 3.5%, Hadiyigna 1.7%, other 14.8%, English (major foreign language taught in schools)
Government and Politics:
Monarchy and dictatorship defined two centuries of Ethiopian rule until relatively freer (but not fully democratic) reforms institutionalized in the 1994 constitution. Today, the unelected executive includes a president, Council of State, and Council of Ministers, though the prime minister holds executive power. The opposition is well represented in the legislature's 108-seat House of Federation (or upper chamber) responsible for interpreting the constitution and federal-regional issues) and the popularly elected 547-seat House of People's Representatives, or lower chamber. The next election will be held in 2010.
Religion:
The majority of the Ethiopian population is Christian--51% Ethiopian Orthodox, 10% Protestant. About 33% of the population is Muslim (mostly Sunni and Sufi). Religion freedom and the separation of church and state are enshrined in the federal constitution. The US State Department notes in its 2002
Religious Freedom Report on Ethiopia that "While some Muslim leaders continued to complain that public school authorities sometimes interfered with their free practice of Islam because they prohibited the wearing of headscarves in school, others accepted that school officials do so to keep better track of their students."
Economy:
Ethiopia is a poor, rural country, vulnerable to droughts and self-inflicted economic slumps resulting from Ethiopia's enthusiasm for war with Eritrea or Somalia. Nevertheless, Ethiopia's economic growth rate has been approaching 10 percent a year. Still, it is largely an agricultural country (the sector contributes 47% to GNP and more than 80% of exports, and employs 85% of the population) and at $130 per year, Ethiopia has one of the lowest per-capita incomes in the world. Its natural gas reserves have not been tapped.
Military:
According to the US State Department, "The Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF) numbers about 200,000 personnel, which makes it one of the largest militaries in Africa. During the 1998-2000 border war with Eritrea, the ENDF mobilized strength reached approximately 350,000. Since the end of the war, some 150,000 soldiers have been demobilized. The ENDF continues a transition from its roots as a guerrilla army to an all-volunteer professional military organization with the aid of the U.S. and other countries. [...] Ethiopia now has one peacekeeping contingent in Liberia."
Human Rights, Civil Rights and Media:
Ethiopia has a spotty record in human rights and press freedoms. Freedom House
notes that opposition leaders and activists who had been charged with capital offenses in the wake of 2005 postelection protests were pardoned and released in 2007. But Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International
warned in July 2008 that Ethiopia’s government was planning to impose strict government controls and draconian criminal penalties on nongovernmental organizations, including human rights organizations. The
press-freedom climate is bad and self-censorship frequent.
History:
Ethiopia is the literal cradle of humankind, with bones discovered in eastern Ethiopia dating back 3.2 million years. The country is the oldest independent country in Africa and one of the oldest in the world, Legend has it that Menelik I, the son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, founded the Ethiopian Empire. Egyptian and Syrian missionaries introduced Christianity in the 4th century, Islam arrived in the 7th. Europeans tried but failed to control Ethiopia, which managed to buck the colonialist ravages of the 19th century, but at the price of isolation and internal conflict.
Current Issues:
Today, Ethiopia is an East African regional power, though not necessarily to good ends. In May 1998, Eritrean forces attacked part of the Ethiopia-Eritrea border region, seizing some Ethiopian-controlled territory. The strike spurred a two-year war between the neighboring states that cost over 100,000 lives. Ethiopia is bloodily involved in the war in Somalia, supporting the central government against the extremist Council of Islamic Courts since 2006. Despite its poor human rights record, Ethiopia is a U.S. ally, receiving $2.3 billion between 1991 and 2003, and $738 million in 2007 alone.
The Ethiopian military has been engaged in a long war against Somali rebels in the eastern Region of Ethiopia known as the Ogaden. According to Human Rights Watch, "In its battle against rebels in eastern Ethiopia’s Somali Region, Ethiopia's army has subjected civilians to executions, torture, and rape, Human Rights Watch said in a new report [...]. The widespread violence, part of a vicious counterinsurgency campaign that amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity, has contributed to a looming humanitarian crisis, threatening the survival of thousands of ethnic Somali nomads."
