Simple directory > Regional > Ethiopia

Country : Ethiopia Official name: Ityopia (Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia) Head of State: President Girma Wolde Giorgise (elected by parliament 8 Oct 2001) Head of government: Prime Minister Meles Zenawi (leader of EPRDF) (since 1995; re-elected Oct 2000) Ruling party: Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), an alliance led by the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) Area: 1,251,282 square km Population: 72.03 million (2004) Capital: Addis Ababa Official language: Amharic Currency: Birr (Birr) = 100 cents Exchange rate: Birr8.60 per US$ (Nov 2004) GDP per capita: US$91 (2003) GDP real growth: -3.80% (2003) Inflation: 14.60% (2003) Balance of trade: -US$1.20 billion (2003) Foreign debt: US$5.30 billion (2003)

Historical profile

100 BC A kingdom including part of modern-day Ethiopia existed around Axum.

450 AD The kingdom was converted to Christianity and the Ethiopian church became part of the Coptic community.

1896 Italy tried to seize Ethiopia but lost the Battle of Adwa. The Italians held on to Eritrea on the Red Sea coast.

1916 Ras Tafari, later known as Emperor Haile Selassie, gained power over local lords but his appeal to the League of Nations for help against the invading Italians went unheeded.

1936 Benito Mussolini's army occupied all of Ethiopia, which became part of Italian East Africa.

1941 British and Commonwealth troops along with the arbegnoch Ethiopian resistance fought the Italians.

1945 Emperor Haile Selassie returned to power after the Second World War.

1962 Eritrea was annexed by Ethiopia.

1974 Haile Selassie was deposed in coup led by Teferi Benti.

1975 Haile Selassie died in custody.

1977 Benti was killed and replaced by Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam, who led a brutal regime known as the Dergue. At least 100,000 opponents or critics were killed.

1977 Somalia tried to annex part of Ethiopia's Ogaden region, where most people are ethnic Somalis. Cuban and Soviet troops and tanks assisted Ethiopia in repelling the Somalian invasion.

1984 Drought led to a famine in which as many as one million people may have died.

1987 A Soviet-style constitution was adopted and the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia was formed. The regime was supported by the former Soviet Union.

1991 Rebellions gathered momentum in Eritrea, led by the leftist Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) and in Tigray province by the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF). The 14-year dictatorship of Mengistu ended as the EPLF took control of Eritrea and a TPLF-led coalition, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), marched into Addis Ababa. Mengistu fled to Zimbabwe.

1994 The transitional EPRDF government under Meles Zenawi organised the election of a constituent assembly.

1995 A general election was held and the country was officially renamed the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. Negaso Gidada became president.

1998 Border disputes resulted in Eritrea and Ethiopia resuming full-scale fighting in mid-year and sporadic clashes thereafter.

1999 War broke out again because of Eritrea's refusal to withdraw from the disputed Badme area.

2000 In the legislative elections, the EPRDF parties did well in Addis Ababa. Meles Zenawi was re-elected as prime minister. The UN peacekeepers opened a 1,000km cease-fire buffer zone between Ethiopia and Eritrea and the two countries signed a peace deal in Algiers in December, ending the two-year war.

2001 The UN established a buffer zone along the border of Ethiopia and Eritrea. President Negaso Gidada had a dispute with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and although he quit the ruling coalition, the president stayed on to finish his term. Parliament elected Girma Wolde Giorgise to replace Gidada in the largely ceremonial position of president.

2002 The mandate of the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) was extended until March 2003. Eritrea and Ethiopia accepted a ruling on the border dispute, made by the Boundary Commission at the Permanent Court of Arbitration of The Hague. A new 1,000km boundary was established between the two countries. Ethiopia, ravaged by drought, requested food aid for nearly six million people.

2003 In March, the UNMEE mandate was extended until September 2003.

2004 In March, a resettlement programme started to move more than two million people away from parched, over-worked highlands. In July, implementation of the peace process that was to resolve the border conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea remains stalled.

2005 According to provisional results of the 15 May parliamentary elections, the ruling EPRDF and its allies won an overall majority, but election authorities are investigating episodes of fraud and vote rigging.

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