Ethiopia

Ethiopia, a land of contrasts, has become known throughout the world as a country of famine and civil war. However, in the 1930s, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia impressed the world as ruler of the only self-governed African state. He is now thought of as a god by Jamaican followers of Rastafarianism.

Early medieval parchment with Ethiopian script. The Amharic script is an offshoot of the Ethiopic alphabet, itself a descendant of the South Semitic branch of languages, and the only South Semitic script still in use.

Villagers in the Hararghe region, Ethiopia. Here villagers work together to build a new thatch hut.

Country in East Africa, bounded north by Eritrea, northeast by Djibouti, east and southeast by Somalia, south by Kenya, and west and northwest by Sudan. It was known as Abyssinia until the 1920s.

Government

Ethiopia is a federal, parliamentary republic. The 1994 constitution, which restored the country's federal status, based on nine states, provides for a multiparty system, a prime minister as head of government, and a two-chamber federal legislature. The legislature comprises the council of people's representatives, with 547 members directly elected for five-year terms in single-member constituencies, and the council of the federation with 110 members, one for each nationality, and one additional representative for each 1 million of its population, designated by the regional councils. The council of people's representatives elects the state president, for a six-year term and the party or coalition holding a majority in the council provides the prime minister, to head the government. Controversially, the constitution allows for any one of the nine states to secede from the federation. An interim parliament was elected in 1995 to serve a five-year term.

History

Long subject to Egypt, the area became independent around the 11th century BC. The kingdom of Aksum flourished 1st–10th centuries AD, reaching its peak about the 4th century with the introduction of Coptic Christianity from Egypt, and declining from the 7th century as Islam expanded. The Arab conquests isolated Aksum from the rest of the Christian world.

During the 10th century there emerged a kingdom that formed the basis of Abyssinia, reinforced in 1270 with the founding of a new dynasty. Although it remained independent throughout the period of European colonization of Africa, Abyssinia suffered civil unrest and several invasions from the 16th century, and was eventually reunited in 1889 under Menelik II, with Italian support. In 1896 Menelik put down an invasion by Italy, which claimed he had agreed to make the country an Italian protectorate, and annexed Ogaden in the southeast and several provinces to the west.

Ethiopian empire

Ethiopia was ruled for over 50 years by Haile Selassie, who became regent in 1916, king in 1928, and emperor in 1930. The country was occupied by Italy 1936–41, and Haile Selassie went into exile in Britain. Ogaden was returned to Somalia, which was also under Italian control. Haile Selassie returned from exile in 1941 and ruled until 1974, when he was deposed by the armed forces after a severe famine, high inflation, growing unemployment, and demands for greater democracy. The government's failure to take action to alleviate the 1973–74 famine in the north and its denial of reports of widespread starvation contributed to Selassie's downfall. His palace and estates were nationalized, parliament dissolved, and the constitution suspended. Ethiopia was proclaimed a socialist state and rule was established by a Provisional Military Administrative Council (PMAC). Haile Selassie died in 1975, aged 83, detained in an apartment in his former palace in Addis Ababa.

Secessionist movements

Gen Teferi Benti, who had led the uprising and been made head of state, was killed in 1977 by fellow officers and replaced by Col Mengistu Haile Mariam. The Ethiopian empire had been built up by Haile Selassie and Menelik, and annexed regions had made frequent attempts to secede. The 1974 revolution encouraged secessionist movements to increase their efforts, and the military government had to fight to keep Eritrea and Ogaden, where Somalian troops were assisting local guerrillas. During the period 1977–79, which become known as the ‘Red Terror’, thousands of innocent people were killed by the Mengistu regime.

The USSR, having adopted Ethiopia as a new ally, threatened to cut off aid to Somalia, and Cuban troops assisted Mengistu in ending the fighting there. Eritrea and its neighbour, Tigray, continued their struggle for independence.

Famine

Amid this confusion there was acute famine in the Tigray region in the north, including Eritrea, after the rains failed for three successive seasons. In addition to a massive emergency aid programme from Western nations, the Ethiopian government tried to alleviate the problem by resettling people from the north in the more fertile south. The 1985 famine claimed around 250,000 lives and by 1986 more than 500,000 had been forcibly resettled.

Tigray breaks free

Meanwhile, the military regime had re-established normal relations with most of its neighbours. In 1987 a new constitution was adopted and Col Mengistu Mariam was elected the country's first president. A further famine struck, during which attempts to distribute food aid were hindered by guerrillas. Tigray province was captured by the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) and the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF) in February 1989, the first time the government had lost control of the entire province. An attempted coup against Mengistu in May 1989 was put down and the military high command subsequently purged. Following a mediation offer by the former US president Jimmy Carter, peace talks with the Eritrean rebels began in August 1989. At the same time, droughts in the north threatened another widespread famine.

Mengistu ousted

Rebel pressure on the Mengistu government increased steadily during early 1991; in May Mengistu fled the country when the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) rebel group occupied the country's capital, Addis Ababa. The EPLF gained virtually complete control of Eritrea and secured the province's capital, Asmara, after 30 years of fighting.

Transition period

Peace and stability commissions were set up to monitor the end of the civil war, and in July 1991 delegates from Ethiopia's political and ethnic groups met to organize a transitional government. The conference gave regional and ethnic groups the right to form their own countries, agreeing Eritrea's right to seek independence. On 21 July, Meles Zenawi, leader of the EPRDF, was elected head of state. A referendum in April 1993 overwhelmingly favoured Eritrean independence, and this was subsequently recognized. In 1994 a new constitution was ratified, introducing a federal system of government. The ruling EPRDF won a majority of seats in the first multiparty elections to an interim legislature June–July 1995. The new parliament elected Negasso Ghidada president, and Zenawi became prime minister.

Conflict with Eritrea

In May 1998 there were clashes with Eritrean troops over a disputed border, the Badme triangle, in northwestern Ethiopia; in June 1998, after the fighting had escalated, a formal moratorium on air strikes was reached. However, ferocious fighting broke out afresh in February 1999 between forces of Eritrea and Ethiopia at two sites along their disputed border, and this soon escalated into a full-scale war.

This border war continued on and off until July 1999, when the Organization of African Unity (OAU; later African Union) brokered a provisional settlement. However, in September 1999 Ethiopia rejected the OAU peace plan.

2000 drought and continued border dispute

Ethiopia was one of the African countries worst affected by drought in 2000 which, the UN calculated, put at risk of starvation 16 million people. The EU complained that aid was hampered by Ethiopia's poor infrastructure and the continuing border conflict with Eritrea. The UN threatened to impose sanctions and the EU warned that food aid could be stopped if the fighting continued. This provoked large demonstrations and the stoning, by mobs, of the British and US embassies in Addis Ababa.

Peace is agreed

In May 2000, Ethiopian troops pushed into Eritrea, forcing Eritrean troops back to the line they occupied in May 1998. This led to up to 500,000 Eritrean civilians losing their homes and a refugee exodus of around 100,000 into Sudan, as well as continuing disruption to food aid. After a two-week invasion, Ethiopia withdrew its army from western Eritrea, although fighting continued in other areas. In June 2000, both Eritrea and Ethiopia accepted a peace plan backed by the OAU, the USA, and the UN, paving the way to a ceasefire.

A peace agreement was signed on 12 December 2000, in Algiers, Algeria, and in February 2001, the countries agreed to a UN-controlled buffer zone on the disputed border. Around 42,000 UN peacekeeping troops were deployed along the former front line. US officials estimated that the total number of people killed in the fighting was between 50,000 and 100,000. In April 2002, arbitrators in The Hague, the Netherlands, ruled on the siting of a new 998 km/620 mi-long border with Eritrea.

Political developments

After fresh multiparty elections in May 2000, Meles Zenawi remained as prime minister. In March 2001, he survived an attempt from within his ruling Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF) to remove him, after he proposed a crackdown against corruption and a reining in of TPLF-owned enterprises. In October 2001, parliament elected Lieutenant Girma Wolde-Giorgis as president.

The ruling ERDF retained power at the general election of May 2005, attracting 59% of the vote and winning 327 of the 547 seats in the parliament. The opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy protested against the results and more than 193 civilians and 6 policemen were killed after government forces fired on the demonstrators.

Ethiopia (redirected from I'll be seein' ya)