Ambassade Addis Ababa - Modern Ethiopia

Modern Ethiopia

The Ethiopian Flag
Three equal horizontal bands of green, yellow and red. In the middle is a blue circle with a yellow pentagram with five rays emerging from the points between the five points of the pentagram.

Population
Ethiopia has circa 70 million inhabitants and grows with 2.4% per year. With a population density of over 60 persons per km2, it is one of Africa's most densely populated countries. The population consists of several ethnic groups of which the Oromos, Amharic, Tigrayan, Somalis and Afars are the biggest. The low life expectancy at birth (46 year) and the fairly high fertility rate (6.1 children per woman) affect the composition of the population: 46% of the population is younger than 15, 51% is aged between 15 and 64 and 3% is 65 or older.

Economy
Ethiopia's economy depends heavily on the agricultural sector. Agriculture accounts for 85% of the labour force, over 39% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 70% of exports. The regular droughts combined with poor cultivation practices, make Ethiopia's economy frail though.

Coffee is vital to the Ethiopian economy, but low coffee prices have caused many farmers to switch to the more profitable khat. Other important products are cotton, sugar cane, oil seeds, vegetables and fruits. In addition, Ethiopia's livestock population is significant as well, it is said to be the largest in Africa.

The war with Eritrea and recurrent droughts had a dramatic impact on Ethiopia's economy. In 2001 Ethiopia qualified for debt relief from the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative. Drought struck again in 2002 though, which resulted in a considerable decline of the GDP. Fortunately, the weather patterns were normal in 2003 and the GDP recovered in 2004.

Politics

The Prime Minister is designated by the party in power following the House of people’s representatives’ elections. The last general national and regional elections took place in May 2005. In that heavily contested election, the ruling EPRDF got 327 seats in a Parliament of 547 members.

The two main opposition parties, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy Party (CUDP) and the United Ethiopia Democratic forces (UEDF) got 109 and 52 seats respectively. The Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement (OFDM) got 11 seats. Former President of the FederalRepublic, Dr Negasso Gidada is the only independent member of the Parliament. The CUDP boycotted the national parliament alleging the ruling party for fraud and vote rigging.

Since the fall of the Derg regime in1991, the EPRDF, a coalition of several ethnic based parties govern the country. Initially, the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) participated in the transitional government, but withdrew in protest in July 1992. The OLF was banned by the government and remained in opposition. Recently, however, government has shown interest to negotiate with the OLF without any pre-condition.T

he border dispute with Eritrea that consumed the lives of many thousands remains unresolved. Eritrea imposed a ban on UN reconnaissance flights over the disputed 1000km. border on October 5, 2005 fuelling fears that that Red SeaState was trying to hide troop movements to prepare for a new war with Ethiopia. Under the 2000 Algiers peace agreement, Ethiopia and Eritrea agreed to accept an independent commission ruling on where the border should be as ‘final and binding’.