|
|
|
World > Africa > Ethiopia
 |
Ethiopia |
Introduction:
|
Unique among African countries, the ancient Ethiopian monarchy maintained its freedom from colonial rule with the exception of the 1936-41 Italian occupation during World War II. In 1974, a military junta, the Derg, deposed Emperor Haile SELASSIE (who had ruled since 1930) and established a socialist state. Torn by bloody coups, uprisings, wide-scale drought, and massive refugee problems, the regime was finally toppled in 1991 by a coalition of rebel forces, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). A constitution was adopted in 1994, and Ethiopia's first multiparty elections were held in 1995. A border war with Eritrea late in the 1990's ended with a peace treaty in December 2000. Final demarcation of the boundary is currently on hold due to Ethiopian objections to an international commission's finding requiring it to surrender territory considered sensitive to Ethiopia.
|
| Official name: |
Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia |
| Capital: |
name: Addis Ababa
geographic coordinates: 9 02 N, 38 42 E
time difference: UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time) |
| Government type: |
federal republic |
| Population: |
76,511,887
note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2007 est.) |
| 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) (1994 census) |
| Official Currency: |
Ethiopian Birr (ETB) |
| Currency code: |
ETB |
| Area: |
total: 1,127,127 sq km
land: 1,119,683 sq km
water: 7,444 sq km |
| Climate: |
tropical monsoon with wide topographic-induced variation |
|
Map of Ethiopia
|
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
|
|
-
-
-
-
-
|
|
|
|
|
