Ethiopia

Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea and Djibouti to the north, Somalia to the east and northeast, Kenya to the south, South Sudan to the west, and Sudan to the northwest. Ethiopia has a total area of 1,100,000 square kilometres (420,000 sq mi). It is home to 117 million inhabitants and is the 12th-most populous country in the world and the 2nd-most populous in Africa after Nigeria. The national capital and largest city, Addis Ababa, lies several kilometres west of the East African Rift that splits the country into the African and Somali tectonic plates.Anatomically modern humans emerged from modern-day Ethiopia and set out to the Near East and elsewhere in the Middle Paleolithic period. Human inhabitation of various Afroasiatic and Nilotic peoples in Ethiopia perhaps commenced during the third millennium BC. In 980 BC, the Kingdom of D'mt was established in the north frontier of Ethiopia, while the Kingdom of Aksum maintained a unified civilization in the region for 900 years. Christianity arrived in the 4th century and Islam was introduced in the 7th century. After the collapse of Aksum in 960, a variety of kingdoms thrived in what is known as Ethiopia. The Zagwe dynasty ruled the north-central parts until being overthrown by Yekuno Amlak in 1270; inaugurating the Ethiopian Empire and its Solomonic line dynasty claimed descent from the biblical Solomon and Queen of Sheba under their son Menelik I. By the 14th century, the empire grew in prestige through territorial expansion until the mid-18th-century decentralization known as Zemene Mesafint, and Ethiopia was reunified and modernized by Emperor Tewodros II in 1855.From 1878 onwards, Emperor Menelik II launched series of conquests known as Menelik's Expansions, resulted in the formation of current border of Ethiopia. Externally, the conflating Treaty of Wuchale in 1889 culminating in series of wars by which Ethiopia defeated Italy in 1896 during the Scramble for Africa; leaving Ethiopia and Liberia as independent African nations. In 1935, Ethiopia was occupied by Fascist Italy and annexed with Italian-possessed Eritrea and Somaliland, later forming Italian East Africa. In 1941, the British army together with the Ethiopian Arbegnoch unit liberated Ethiopia amidst the Second World War. The Derg, a Soviet-backed military junta, took power in 1974 after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie and the Solomonic dynasty, ruled the country nearly 17 years, initiating the Ethiopian Civil War. Following defeating the Derg in 1991, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) dominated the country with a new constitution and ethnic-based federalism. Since then, Ethiopia suffered from prolonged and unsolved inter-ethnic clashes and political instability marked by democratic backsliding. Ethiopia is a multi-ethnic state with over 80 different ethnic groups. Christianity and Islam are the main faiths observed in Ethiopia. This sovereign state is a founding member of the UN, the Group of 24 (G-24), the Non-Aligned Movement, the G77 and the Organisation of African Unity. Addis Ababa is the headquarters of the African Union, the Pan African Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, the African Standby Force and many of the global NGOs focused on Africa. Ethiopia is considered an emerging power and developing country. It experienced 9.4% economic growth from 2010 to 2020. The country is regarded as poor in terms of per capita income and the Human Development Index, with high rates of poverty, poor respect for human rights, and a literacy rate of only 49%. Agriculture is the largest sector in Ethiopia; it accounted for nearly half of the national GDP and over 80% of the nation's workforce as of 2015.