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Ethiopia is an East African country. Formerly known as
Abyssinia, it is located in the Horn of Africa and has
an area of 1 127 127 km2. It is bordered by
Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia
to the east, Kenya to the south and Sudan to the
west. The most important cities are Addis-Ababa, the
capital, with a population of 2,763,500 inhabitants
(2004), Dire Dawa (254,500 inhabitants), Nazret (176,800
inhabitants), Gonder (147,900 inhabitants) and Harar
(99,600 inhab.). The climate is tropical in altitude
on the plateau and in the mountains, but hot and dry in
the lowlands.
Economy
Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the
world. Although some areas receive precipitation with
relative abundance and frequency, others are
periodically affected by severe droughts. Droughts are
responsible for serious food problems that have hit the
country, whose population has therefore received
International Food Emergency Aid. However, large
expanses of mountainous terrain make it difficult to
transport food to the most severely affected areas.
The country's economy is based on agriculture. The
existing crops are maize, sugar cane, sorghum, barley,
wheat, potatoes, yams, coffee and cotton. The extractive
industry includes cement, salt, lime stone, gold and
platinum. It is possible that there are undiscovered
mineral wealth, including oil, but currently employment
outside the agricultural area is limited to a small
sector of building materials, footwear, tires, food
products and textiles. Ethiopia's main trading partners
are Germany, Japan, Saudi Arabia and the United States
of America.
Environmental indicator: the value of carbon dioxide
emissions, per capita (metric tons, 1999), is 0.1.
Population
The population is 74 777 981 inhabitants (2006), which
corresponds to a population density of 58.4 inhab./km2. The
birth and death rates are, respectively, 37.98% and
14.86%. Average life expectancy is 49.03 years. The
value of the Human Development Index (HDI) is 0.359 and
the value of the Gender-adjusted Development Index (IDG)
is 0.347 (2001). The official language is Amharic, but a
large part of the population speaks tribal
languages. The largest ethnolinguistic groups are
Amhara, with 38%, and Galla, with 35%, followed by
Tigrignas (9%), Guragué (3%), Ometo (3%), Sidamo (2 %),
Tigréen, Afar and Somali. The most important religions
are Ethiopian Orthodox (53%), Muslim (31%) and
traditional beliefs (11%).
Hunger in Ethiopia is not uncommon, but in the 1980s
there was the worst crisis ever. The drought hit
different areas in different years. Many local economies
were destroyed with the loss of crops and the death of
livestock. In addition, the war affected food production
by removing men from their land, and it also hampered
aid operations. In mid-1985, half a million Ethiopians
took refuge in Sudan. More than 250,000 people died,
many of them children. A vast international aid
operation was then created.
History
In the mid-1980s, alongside hunger, another problem
arose. Eritrea, then under the control of Ethiopia,
wanted independence. The country launched a long civil
war, with guerrilla conflicts in several areas. The
Ethiopian military government devoted a great financial
effort to the fighting, which further worsened the
critical situation of the populations. Eritrea became
independent in 1993.
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