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Transnational_issues of Ethiopia

Disputes - international:Eritrea and Ethiopia agreed to abide by the 2002 Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission's (EEBC) delimitation decision, but neither party responded to the revised line detailed in the November 2006 EEBC Demarcation Statement; UN Peacekeeping Mission to Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), which has monitored the 25-km-wide Temporary Security Zone in Eritrea since 2000, is extended for six months in 2007 despite Eritrean restrictions on its operations and reduced force of 17,000; the undemarcated former British administrative line has little meaning as a political separation to rival clans within Ethiopia's Ogaden and southern Somalia's Oromo region; Ethiopian forces invaded southern Somalia and routed Islamist Courts from Mogadishu in January 2007; "Somaliland" secessionists provide port facilities in Berbera and trade ties to landlocked Ethiopia; civil unrest in eastern Sudan has hampered efforts to demarcate the porous boundary with Ethiopia
Refugees and internally displaced persons:refugees (country of origin): 73,927 (Sudan), 15,901 (Somalia), 10,700 (Eritrea)
IDPs: 100,000-280,000 (border war with Eritrea from 1998-2000 and ethnic clashes in Gambela; most IDPs are in Tigray and Gambela Provinces) (2006)
Illicit drugs:transit hub for heroin originating in Southwest and Southeast Asia and destined for Europe, as well as cocaine destined for markets in southern Africa; cultivates qat (khat) for local use and regional export, principally to Djibouti and Somalia (legal in all three countries); the lack of a well-developed financial system limits the country's utility as a money laundering center

Ethiopia Quickstats

  • Population: 76,511,887
  • Area: 1,127,127 sq km
  • Density: 70 /km² (123rd)
  • GDP (total): $69.099 billion (69th)
  • GDP (per capita): $823 (175fth)
  • Literacy: 42.7%

Languages of Ethiopia

  • Amarigna 32.7%
  • Oromigna 31.6%
  • Tigrigna 6.1%
  • Somaligna 6%
  • Other 23.5%

Useful to know

  • Currency: Birr (ETB)
  • Dial code: +251

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