ETHIOPIA THE COUNTRY

Fancy a little history and geography lesson …. read on, if not skip and move onto the next blog entry.(Source:www.worldmapmaker.com)

The Flag (adopted 6 February 1996 - the colours date back to 1890's)

Flag: consists of 3 equal horizontal stripes - the top is green, the middle is yellow and the bottom is red.In the middle is the country's coat of arms on a blue circle.It is often seen without the blue circle.

Meaning: the Red stripe stands for power, faith and blood.The Yellow symbolises the church, peace, natural wealth and love.The Green represents the land and hope.The colours are also interpreted to have a connection to the Holy Trinity and the 3 main provinces of Ethiopia.The five rays on the outside of the outside of the star represent prosperity and the blue disk represents peace.

Background: Unique among African countries, the ancient Ethiopian monarchy maintained its freedom from colonial rule with the exception of a short-lived Italian occupation from 1936-41. In 1974, a military junta, the Derg, deposed Emperor Haile SELASSIE (who had ruled since 1930) and established a socialist state. Torn by bloody coups, uprisings, wide-scale drought, and massive refugee problems, the regime was finally toppled in 1991 by a coalition of rebel forces, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). A constitution was adopted in 1994, and Ethiopia's first multiparty elections were held in 1995. A border war with Eritrea late in the 1990s ended with a peace treaty in December 2000. The Eritrea-Ethiopia Border Commission in November 2007 remotely demarcated the border by geographical coordinates, but final demarcation of the boundary on the ground is currently on hold because of Ethiopian objections to an international commission's finding requiring it to surrender territory considered sensitive to Ethiopia.

Area: total: 1,127,127 sq km land: 1,119,683 sq km water: 7,444 sq km

Land boundaries: total: 5,328 km border countries: Djibouti 349 km, Eritrea 912 km, Kenya 861 km, Somalia 1,600 km, Sudan 1,606 km

Climate: tropical monsoon with wide topographic-induced variation

Natural resources: small reserves of gold, platinum, copper, potash, natural gas, hydropower

Population: 85 million (2009)

Nationality: Ethiopian

Ethnic groups: : Oromo 32.1%, Amara 30.1%, Tigraway 6.2%, Somalie 5.9%, Guragie 4.3%, Sidama 3.5%, Welaita 2.4%, other 15.4% (1994 census

Religions: Christian 60.8% (Orthodox 50.6%, Protestant 10.2%), Muslim 32.8%, traditional 4.6%, other 1.8% (1994 census

Languages: Amarigna 32.7%, Oromigna 31.6%, Tigrigna 6.1%, Somaligna 6%, Guaragigna 3.5%, Sidamigna 3.5%, Hadiyigna 1.7%, other 14.8%, English (major foreign language taught in schools) (1994 census

Government type: federal republic

Capital: Addis Ababa

Independence: oldest independent country in Africa and one of the oldest in the world - at least 2,000 years

National holiday: National Day (defeat of MENGISTU regime), 28 May (1991)

Currency:birr (ETB)

Exchange ETB per US dollar - 12.39 (2009)