Yearbook 2009
Ethiopia. In January, Ethiopia withdrew the army from Somalia, where it entered December 2006 to crush Islamist militia. The government felt that the Somali provisional government now had control over the country. Just a few months later, the Ethiopian government acknowledged that “covert associations” had re-entered Somalia, where the Islamists had once again taken over. However, Ethiopia said that regular combatants would not be sent to the neighboring country without an international mandate. A request by the Somali government for squad support was rejected.
| Land area | 1,104,300 km² |
| Total population | 108.113.150 |
| Residents per km² | 97.9 |
| Capital | Addis Ababa |
| Official language | Amharic |
| Income per capita | $ 2,200 |
| Currency | Ethiopian birr |
| ISO 3166 code | ET |
| Internet TLD | .et |
| License plate | ETH |
| Telephone code | +251 |
| Time zone UTC | +3 |
| Geographic coordinates | 8 00 N, 38 00 O |
A harsh domestic political climate existed. At the turn of the year, one of the opposition leaders, Birtukan Midekssa, was sentenced to life imprisonment after being reported to, among other things, Sweden, denied having asked for forgiveness for her participation in the unrest following the 2005 parliamentary elections. protested against the prison land, but Prime Minister Meles Zenawi explained that a pardon must be lifted if it was based on dishonest concessions.
According to countryaah, Ethiopia was also criticized for a law that voluntary organizations that are more than 10 percent financed from abroad cannot work on human rights issues. A new anti-terrorism law was criticized for overly sweeping formulations. The law was feared to stifle the political debate and lead to arbitrary arrests and unfair trials.
In April, around 30 were arrested for alleged plans to overthrow the government. They were members of the exile organization 7 ginbot (May 15 movement), led by the exiled mayor of Addis Ababa, Berhanu Nega. In December, five members of the organization were sentenced to death and 33 to life imprisonment. Ten of them had been investigated in their absence, including the doomed Nega.
China, which is a strong support for many African regimes with problematic relations with the Western powers, will build two hydroelectric power plants with a capacity of over 2,000 megawatts for the equivalent of about SEK 20 billion. They will be ready for 2014.