Ethiopia
- Oops!
- The website id is invalid.
Ethiopia
Ethiopia is a nation of about 91 million people in eastern Africa, west of Somalia.
Its current Environmental Issues include:
- deforestation;
- overgrazing;
- soil erosion;
- desertification; and,
-
water shortages in some areas from water-intensive farming and poor management
The Blue Nile, the chief headstream of the Nile by water volume, rises in T'ana Hayk (Lake Tana) in northwest Ethiopia.
Three major crops are believed to have originated in Ethiopia: coffee, grain sorghum, and the castor bean.
Part of the geologically active Great Rift Valley makes Ethiopia susceptible to earthquakes, volcanic eruptions. It also experiences frequent droughts.
Erta Ale (elev. 613 m), which has caused frequent lava flows in recent years, is the country's most active volcano; Dabbahu became active in 2005, causing evacuations; other historically active volcanoes include Alayta, Dalaffilla, Dallol, Dama Ali, Fentale, Kone, Manda Hararo, and Manda-Inakir
Unique among African countries, the ancient Ethiopian monarchy maintained its freedom from colonial rule with the exception of a short-lived Italian occupation from 1936-41.
Eritrea (a Italian colony until World War II which Britain took over administration) was awarded to Ethiopia in 1952 as part of a federation. Ethiopia's annexation of Eritrea as a province 10 years later sparked a 30-year struggle for independence that ended in 1991 with Eritrean rebels defeating governmental forces and independence from Ethiopia in a 1993. As a result, Ethiopia no longer borders the Red Sea and is a landlocked nation.
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 1990s ended with a peace treaty in December 2000.
In November 2007, the Eritrea-Ethiopia Border Commission remotely demarcated the border by geographical coordinates, but final demarcation of the boundary on the ground is currently on hold because of Ethiopian objections to an international commission's finding requiring it to surrender territory considered sensitive to Ethiopia.
Geography
Location: Eastern Africa, west of Somalia
Geographic Coordinates: 8 00 N, 38 00 E
Area: 1,127,127 km2 (1,119,683 km2 land and 7,444 km2 water)
Land Boundaries: 5,328 km. Border countries: Djibouti 349 km, Eritrea 912 km, Kenya 861 km, Somalia 1,600 km, Sudan 1,606 km
Coastline: 0 km (landlocked)
Maritime Claims: none (landlocked)
Natural Hazards: geologically active Great Rift Valley susceptible to earthquakes, volcanic eruptions; frequent droughts
Terrain: High plateau with central mountain range divided by Great Rift Valley
Elevation Extremes:
lowest point: Denakil Depression -125 metres
highest point: Ras Dejen 4,533 metres
Climate: Tropical monsoon with wide topographic-induced variation
Government
Type: Federal Republic
Capital: Addis Ababa - 2.863 million (2009)
|
Administrative Divisions: 9 ethnically based states (kililoch, singular - kilil) and 2 self-governing administrations* (astedaderoch, singular - astedader);
|
 |
Independence Date: oldest independent country in Africa and one of the oldest in the world - at least 2,000 years
Legal System: based on civil law; currently transitional mix of national and regional courts; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction
Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal
International Agreements
Environmental-international Agreement:
party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Ozone Layer Protection
signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification, Law of the Sea
People and Society
Population: 90,873,739 (July 2011 est.)
Ethnic Groups: Oromo 34.5%, Amara 26.9%, Somalie 6.2%, Tigraway 6.1%, Sidama 4%, Guragie 2.5%, Welaita 2.3%, Hadiya 1.7%, Affar 1.7%, Gamo 1.5%, Gedeo 1.3%, other 11.3% (2007 Census)
Age Structure:
0-14 years: 46.3% (male 20,990,369/female 21,067,961)15-64 years: 51% (male 22,707,235/female 23,682,385)65 years and over: 2.7% (male 1,037,488/female 1,388,301) (2011 est.)
Population Growth Rate: 3.194% (2011 est.)
Birthrate: 42.99 births/1,000 population (2011 est.)
Death Rate: 11.04 deaths/1,000 population (July 2011 est
Net Migration: -0.01 migrant(s)/1,000 population
Note: repatriation of Ethiopian refugees residing in Sudan is expected to continue for several years; and, some Sudanese, Somali, and Eritrean refugees, who fled to Ethiopia from the fighting or famine in their own countries, continue to return to their homes (2011 est.)
Life Expectancy at Birth: 56.19 years
Total Fertility Rate: 4.99 children born/woman (2008 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)
Literacy: (age 15 and over can read and write): 35.1% (2003 est.)
Urbanization: 17% of total population (2010) growing at an annual rate of change of 3.8% (2010-15 est.)
Water
Total Renewable Water Resources: 110 cu km (1987)
Freshwater Withdrawal : 5.56 cu km/yr (6% domestic, 0% industrial, 94% agricultural)
Per Capita Freshwater Withdrawal: 72 cu m/yr (2002)
Access to improved drinking water supplies: 38% of population
Access to improved sanitation facilities: 12% of population
Agriculture
Agricultural Products: cereals, pulses, coffee, oilseed, cotton, sugarcane, potatoes, qat, cut flowers; hides, cattle, sheep, goats; fish
Irrigated Lands: 2,900 sq km (2008)
Resources
Natural Resources: small reserves of gold, platinum, copper, potash, natural gas, hydropower
Land Use:
arable land: 10.01%
permanent crops: 0.65%
other: 89.34% (2005)
| Energy in Ethiopia | |||||
| Production | Consumption | Exports | Imports | Reserves | |
| Electricity | 2.864 billion kWh (2005) | 2.577 billion kWh (2005) | 0 kWh (2005) | 0 kWh (2005) | |
| Oil | 7.334 bbl/day (2005 est.) | 29,000 bbl/day (2005 est.) | 0 bbl/day (2004) | 28,460 bbl/day (2004) | 428,000 bbl (1 January 2006 est.) |
| Natural Gas | 0 cu m (2005 est.) | 0 cu m (2005 est.) | 0 cu m (2005 est.) | 0 cu m (2005) | 23.9 billion cu m (1 January 2006 est.) |
| Source: CIA Factbook | |||||
Health
Prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Adults: 4.4% (2003 est.)
Major Infectious Diseases:
degree of risk: high
food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A and E, and typhoid fever
vectorborne diseases: malaria
respiratory disease: meningococcal meningitis
animal contact disease: rabies
water contact disease: schistosomiasis (2008)
Conflict
International Disputes: Eritrea and Ethiopia agreed to abide by the 2002 Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission's (EEBC) delimitation decision, but neither party responded to the revised line detailed in the November 2006 EEBC Demarcation Statement; the undemarcated former British administrative line has little meaning as a political separation to rival clans within Ethiopia's Ogaden and southern Somalia's Oromo region; Ethiopian forces invaded southern Somalia and routed Islamist Courts from Mogadishu in January 2007; "Somaliland" secessionists provide port facilities in Berbera and trade ties to landlocked Ethiopia; civil unrest in eastern Sudan has hampered efforts to demarcate the porous boundary with Ethiopia
Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons:
refugees (country of origin): 66,980 (Sudan); 16,576 (Somalia); 13,078 (Eritrea)
IDPs: 200,000 (border war with Eritrea from 1998-2000, ethnic clashes in Gambela, and ongoing Ethiopian military counterinsurgency in Somali region; most IDPs are in Tigray and Gambela Provinces) (2007)
Economy
Ethiopia's poverty-stricken economy is based on agriculture, accounting for almost 45% of GDP, and 85% of total employment.
The agricultural sector suffers from frequent drought and poor cultivation practices. Coffee is critical to the Ethiopian economy with exports of some $350 million in 2006, but historically low prices have seen many farmers switching to qat to supplement income.
Under Ethiopia's constitution, the state owns all land and provides long-term leases to the tenants; the system continues to hamper growth in the industrial sector as entrepreneurs are unable to use land as collateral for loans.
In November 2001, Ethiopia qualified for debt relief from the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, and in December 2005 the IMF forgave Ethiopia's debt.
The global economic downturn led to balance of payments pressures, partially alleviated by recent emergency funding from the IMF. While GDP growth has remained high, per capita income is among the lowest in the world.
GDP (Purchasing Power Parity): $86.12 billion (2010 est.)
GDP (Official Exchange Rate): $29.72 billion (2010 est.)
GDP- per capita: $1,000 (2010 est.)
GDP- composition by sector:
agriculture: 50%
industry: 11%
services: 39% (2010 est.)
Industries: food processing, beverages, textiles, leather, chemicals, metals processing, cement
Exports: coffee, qat, gold, leather products, live animals, oilseeds
Export Partners: Germany 8.3%, Saudi Arabia 7.1%, US 7%, Djibouti 6.7%, Italy 6.5%, China 6.4%, Japan 5.9%, Netherlands 4.8% (2006)
Imports: food and live animals, petroleum and petroleum products, chemicals, machinery, motor vehicles, cereals, textiles
Import Partners: Saudi Arabia 16.9%, China 16.4%, India 7.8%, Italy 5% (2006)
Economic Aid Recipient: $1.6 billion (FY05/06)
Currency: birr (ETB)
Communications
Telephones- main line in use: 725,000 (2006)
Telephones- mobile/cellular: 1.208 million (2007)
Radio Broadcast Stations: AM 8, FM 0, shortwave 1 (2001)
Television Broadcast Stations: 1 (plus 24 repeaters) (2001)
Internet Hosts: 89 (2007)
Internet Users: 164,000 (2005)
Transportation
Airports: 84 (2007)
Railways:
total: 699 km (Ethiopian segment of the Addis Ababa-Djibouti railroad)
narrow gauge: 699 km 1.000-m gauge
note: railway under joint control of Djibouti and Ethiopia but remains largely inoperable (2006)
Roadways:
total: 36,469 km
paved: 6,980 km
unpaved: 29,489 km (2004)
Ports and Terminals: Ethiopia is landlocked and uses ports of Djibouti in Djibouti and Berbera in Somalia
Citation
Central Intelligence Agency (Lead Author);CIA World Factbook (Content Source);Lakhdar Boukerrou, Peter Saundry (Topic Editor) "Ethiopia". In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). [First published in the Encyclopedia of Earth May 30, 2009; Last revised Date December 31, 2011; Retrieved February 9, 2012 <http://www.eoearth.org/article/Ethiopia>
The Author
The Central Intelligence Agency was created in 1947 with the signing of the National Security Act by President Harry S. Truman. The act also created a Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) to serve as head of the United States intelligence community; act as the principal adviser to the President for intelligence matters related to the national security; and serve as head of the Central Intelligence Agency. The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 amended the National Securit ... (Full Bio)
Contact Us
Send to a Friend
Comments
There are no comments.