|RDefense:|N Selective military service between 12 and 18 months. The strength is estimated to 120 000 men.
|RNational holiday:|N Popular Revolution Commemoration Day, September 12.
|RNature and climate:|N In the western part, "the roof of Africa", a majestic highland with peaks of 4 620 m.a.s.l. This highland is broken by several valleys.
In the southeast the Ogaden-desert.
Average temperature in the Ogaden-desert 30°C and in the rest of the country 15-25°C the whole year with great differences between days and nights.
Percipitation in the desert 100 - 500 mm and in the rest of the country 1000 - 2000 mm, most of the rain falls in the summer.
|RPeople:|N Many different tribes. Leading are Oromo, Amhara, Tigre and Sidama.
|REducation:|N Education is free but not compulsory between 6 and 19 years. There are two universities.
|REconomy:|N One of the poorest nations of the world. Agriculture and stockfarming most important industries. Coffee, barley, wheat, maize, sugar canes, cotton, oil plants, bananas and root vegetables are the main crops.
Forestry and pasturage makes the deserts grow.
Oil has been found in the Ogaden desert. There are deposits of gold, copper and platinum but they are extracted only in small amounts.
Manufacturing mainly of agricultural resources, textiles and simple household goods.
|RHistory:|N In pre-Christian times Ethiopia belonged to the Egyptian economic and cultural sphere. During the 2nd century AD a nation aroused round the city of Aksum, which was Christianized in the 4th century. This nation disintegrated in the 8th century and Ethiopia was isolated from the western nations by the Arabic harryings.
Came to prosperity 1300 - 1600 AD.
Another time of prosperity started 1855.
Ethiopia was the only African nation to resist the European imperialism at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries.
1930 Haile Selassie was crowned emperor, but forced into exile by the Italian occupation 1936. He returned 1941 when British forces liberated the nation.
Haile Selassie then started a program of social reforms and reconstruction which could not be fulfilled due to lack of economic resources and led to a coup that failed.
After severe droughts from 1972, which killed hundreds of thousands, the emperor was dethroned by the army in 1974.
Since then the nation has suffered from severe internal fightings, especially in Eritrea, which declared independence in 1993, and in the Tigre and Ogaden provinces.
An international relief effort started in 1984 when an extended drought caused millions to face starvation and death.
1991 a group of six rebel armies forced the junta leader to resign and leave the country. A conference of 24 political groups appointed a transitional government and agreed on a democratic charter granting freedom of expression and the right of self-determination for ethnic groups.
In 1994 a 547 member constitutional assembly was elected and the same year a new federal constitution was adopted. It provides for the creation of a federation of nine ethnic based regions.
