Ethiopia

When the Axumite empire collapsed in the Eighth Century, power shifted south.

In the 16th century, conflict with the Muslim sultanate of Adal cleared the way for the Oromos, a pastoral people expanding from the south, to take power. Ethiopia's rulers moved to Gondar in the northwest.

In the latter part of the 18th century, the monarchy weakened and central government broke down, though the position of the emperor and the Ethiopian Coptic Orthodox Church provided an element of continuity.

Real power was in the hands of provincial nobles who fought for control of the throne until 1855.

Tewodros from Gondar and then Yohannes IV from the northern Tegrai region tried to restore imperial power but spent much time fending off external enemies.

Menelik II of Shora reunited and expanded the empire to the east, south and west of Shora.

It was from these largely Oromo areas that virtually all Ethiopia's resources came, including coffee, gold, ivory and slaves.

As Menelik's successes grew, European colonial powers grew greedy.

Menelik II defeated the Italians at the Battle of Adwa in 1896 but under a treaty, Italy retained control of Eritrea, which it had formally colonised in 1890.

Haile Selassie, a cousin of Menelik II, assumed the throne in 1930 and tried to open up Ethiopia to the world, but was deposed by Marxist military officers in 1974, after a severe famine.

Lieutenant-Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam seized power in 1977 and executed more than 60 of the emperor's officials.

Haile Selassie was killed, allegedly on Mengistu's orders, before the "Red Terror" campaign in which tens of thousands were killed or tortured.

In 1977, Somalia invaded eastern Ethiopia's Ogaden region but was driven out by the Ethiopian army with Soviet and Cuban aid.

Famine in 1984-85 killed up to 1.2 million people.

Mengistu became president of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia under a new socialist constitution in 1987, but Eritrean rebels in the north, who had fought for 30 years, succeeded in over-running key towns, including Massawa port.

By 1988, the defeat in Eritrea was followed by the loss of Tigrai region to the Tugria People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which in 1989 set up a united front -- The Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) -- with other groups.

Mengistu fled to Zimbabwe in May 1991, and a week later the EPDRF entered the capital.

In July 1991, the EPDRF set up an 87-seat council to govern during a transition period.

EPDRF Chairman Meles Zenawi was elected president and his deputy Tamirat Layne prime minister. After a U.N.-sponsored referendum, Eritrea became independent in May 1993.

An elected Ethiopian Constituent Assembly ratified a new constitution in 1994, giving nine new regions the right to vote for self-determination and secession with a two-thirds majority.

In May 1995, the EPRDF and allies won elections boycotted by most of the opposition for a 548-member federal assembly and regional state councils.

Meles became prime minister with full executive powers and Negasso Gidada was chosen as a largely figurehead president.

In May 1998, Eritrea and Ethiopia's long-running squabble over their 1,000km frontier turned violent. After a month of tit-for-tat air strikes and battles on three different fronts, the fighting ground to a halt. The two countries settled for an uneasy stalemate, both building up their forces and expelling each other's citizens.

Fighting resumed between February and June 1999, and then subsided again.

In early 2000, there were increasing warnings of forthcoming drought in the Horn of Africa, threatening much of Ethiopia as well as parts of Eritrea and Kenya.

International humanitarian organisations said there would be no harvest, and some communities would need food assistance right up to the end of 2001.

International NGOs accused the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments of overspending on their military budgets while people were in danger of going hungry.

In mid May 2000, Ethiopia launched a major offensive against Eritrea, at one point getting to within 100 kms (60 miles) of the capital Asmara.

The ruling EPRDF won a landslide victory in May 2000 general elections. Voting was delayed or re-run in parts of the country, but there was never any doubt that Meles would win a second five-year term.

On May 31, Ethiopia announced that the war was over after it recovered all of the territory lost since May 1998.

However, Eritrea scoffed at the announcement, saying it would not declare a ceasefire until Ethiopia had withdrawn all its troops.

The OAU proposed a four-point ceasefire accord calling for deployment of international observers and cartographers, financial compensation for the losses of both sides, and an inquiry into the origin of the conflict.

The war ended with a peace agreement in 2000, after about 70,000 people were killed in the fighting. The peace accord granted a U.N. force freedom of movement

Ethiopia hosted nearly 115,000 refugees at the end of 2001, according to the U.S. Committee for Refugees. More than 80,000 were from Sudan, about 30,000 Somalis and more than 4,000 Eritreans.

About 15,000 Ethiopians were refugees or asylum seekers at the same time, and a further 10,000 were living in refugee-like circumstances in Sudan. Approximately 100,000 Ethiopians were internally displaced.

U.N. sources and local officials estimated that more than 10 percent -- at least 2.9 million -- of the adult population was HIV positive at the end of 2001. The Ministry of Health predicted that the number of people living with HIV/AIDS would increase to 3.2 million by 2006. UNAIDS predicted that average life expectancy would fall to 47 years by 2025.

In February 2001, the World Bank approved a $473 million loan for Ethiopia to use towards post-war reconstruction.

Relations with Eritrea remained bitter, with an ongoing dispute over ownership of the village of Badme, where the two countries first clashed in May 1998. In May 2002 each country accused the other of trying to damage the peace process.

In November 2002, aid organisations expanded their appeals for Ethiopia as the food crisis worsened because of the failure of the short belg rainy season which runs from February to May. The prime minister said his country faced a famine worse than that of 1984.