Ethiopia country profile

Overview

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• Facts
• Leaders
• Media

In the first part of the 20th century Ethiopia forged strong links with Britain, whose troops helped evict the Italians in 1941 and put Emperor Haile Selassie back on his throne. From the 1960s British influence gave way to that of the US, which in turn was supplanted by the Soviet Union.

AT-A-GLANCE Politics: Prime Minister Meles Zenawi won a fourth term in elections held in May 2010. Secessionist groups maintain a low-level armed struggle Economy: One of fastest growing non-oil economies in Africa. Depends heavily on agriculture, which is often affected by drought. Coffee is a key export International: Eritrea hived off in 1993 and a border dispute escalated into full-scale war in 1999. Border tensions persist. Ethiopian troops helped oust Islamists who controlled southern Somalia in 2006. Ethiopia is seen as a key US ally Timeline

Although it has had fewer of the coups that have plagued other African countries, Ethiopia's turmoil has been no less devastating. Drought, famine, war and ill-conceived policies brought millions to the brink of starvation in the 1970s and 1980s.

In 1974 this helped topple Haile Selassie. His regime was replaced by a self-proclaimed Marxist junta led by Mengistu Haile Mariam under which many thousands of opponents were purged or killed, property was confiscated and defence spending spiralled.

The overthrow of the junta in 1991 saw political and economic conditions stabilise, to the extent that the country is regarded as one of Africa's most stable.

Eritrea gained independence in 1993 following a referendum. Poor border demarcation developed into military conflict and full-scale war in the late 1990s in which tens of thousands of people were killed.

A fragile truce has held, but the UN says ongoing disputes over the demarcation of the border threaten peace.

Ethiopia is one of Africa's poorest states. Almost two-thirds of its people are illiterate. The economy revolves around agriculture, which in turn relies on rainfall. The country is one of Africa's leading coffee producers.

Many Ethiopians depend on food aid from abroad. In 2004 the government began a drive to move more than two million people away from the arid highlands of the east in an attempt to provide a lasting solution to food shortages.

At the end of 2006 Ethiopia sent between 5,000 and 10,000 troops into Somalia to support forces of the weak transitional government there and helped to oust the Islamists who had controlled southern Somalia for six months.

But, despite initial successes, the Ethiopians were unable to break the power of the Islamists, who gradually began to win back lost territory.

Ethiopia's presence in Somalia formally ended in early 2009, when it pulled its troops under an agreement between the transitional Somali government and moderate Islamists.

Facts

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• Facts
• Leaders
• Media

Leaders

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• Facts
• Leaders
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President: Girma Woldegiorgis

Prime minister: Meles Zenawi

Meles Zenawi's Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) won a fourth term in elections in May 2010, bolstering its already large majority.

Meles Zenawi: From Marxist to free marketeer Profile: Meles Zenawi

EU and US observers said the vote fell short of international standards, and the opposition refused to accept the result, alleging the election was not free and fair.

In 2009, Mr Meles hinted he might be ready to step down, but his party asked him to stay on and groom a successor.

The EPRDF's previous election win in May 2005 sparked a wave of violence, after opposition supporters took to the streets to protest against alleged vote-rigging. Around 36 people were killed and hundreds were arrested; 46 protesters died in further violence in November.

Mr Meles accused the opposition of planning to topple his government; his critics said a campaign against political dissent was under way. Senior opposition figures and journalists were among those detained and charged with treason in the wake of the 2005 protests.

The prime minister has won praise from Western donors for curbing Ethiopia's reliance on foreign aid and commitment to building up the country's economy. His opponents accuse the West of being blind to what they say is policy of political repress

Meles Zenawi is a veteran of the guerrilla campaign against the Mengistu regime and was chosen as transitional head of state after the dictator was overthrown in 1991. Once a Marxist-Leninist, by the 1990s he had become a champion of the free market and parliamentary democracy.

He was one of the architects of the 1994 constitution, which provided for a federal republic with ethnically-based regions. In 1995 he became prime minister and won a second five-year term in 2000 in Ethiopia's first multi-party elections.

Media

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• Media

Radio is the medium of choice, reaching the rural areas where most Ethiopians live.

Although the state controls most radio stations and the sole national TV network, the print and broadcast media have seen dramatic changes since the fall of Mengistu in the early 1990s.

In 2006, licences were awarded to two private FM stations in the capital.

Some opposition groups beam radio broadcasts to Ethiopia using hired shortwave transmitters overseas.

The number of privately-owned newspapers has grown; some are available online. Press circulation is largely confined to the literate urban elite.

The private press offers quite different reporting to the state-owned newspapers and is often critical of the government.

The relationship between the press and the authorities has sometimes been difficult. Media rights group Reporters Without Borders cited a "spiral of repression" against the private media after violent protests following the 2005 elections.

"The climate remains bad and self-censorship frequent," the group said in its 2008 report.

There were 360,000 internet users by June 2009 (Internetworldstats).

The press

• Addis Zemen - state-owned daily
• Ethiopian Herald - state-owned English-language daily
• The Daily Monitor - private, English-language
• Addis Admass - private, Amharic-language weekly
• The Reporter - private, English-language web pages
• Capital - English-language, business weekly
• Addis Fortune - English-language business weekly

Television

• Ethiopian Television (ETV) - state-owned

Radio

• Radio Ethiopia - state-owned, operates National Service and External Service and regional stations
• FM Addis 97.1 - operated by Addis Ababa city administration
• Voice of Tigray Revolution - Tigray Regional State government radio
• Radio Fana - founded in 1994 by ruling party

News agencies

• Walta Information Centre (WIC) - privately-owned, pro-government
• Ethiopian News Agency (ENA) - state-owned

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