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• Country Focus for January 2012: Ethiopia
  

  Ethiopia, formerly Abyssinia or The kingdom of Aksum(Axum) is one of the oldest countries in the world and an early center of civilization with its own written language (the Ge'ez) and distinct architecture shown in the obelisks. It is the only African country that was never colonized during the srambble for Africa. Ethiopia fought hard and resisted colonization by the European powers except for a short period of occupation by Italy between 1936-41. Ethiopia defended her independence and after the world war II became a founding member of the UN with the capital Addis Ababa playing host to many international organizations working on Africa. When African countries started getting independence, Ethiopia under Emperor Haile SELASSIE (who ruled from 1930 to 1974 when he was overthrown by the military) played a leading role in the formation of the Organization of African Unity - OAU in 1963 and hosted the OAU headquarters at Addis Ababa. Many Africa countries modeled their national flags after the Ethiopian color of green, yellow and red.

  Economy: Ethiopian economy depends mostly on agriculture which account for about 45% of GDP and provide employment for a huge 85% of the population. The main export commodity and foreign exchange earner is coffee. But with low prices, poor cultivation practices and frequent droughts Ethiopian economy remains poor. Other foreign exchange earners include livestock, designed leather products and flowers.

  Tourism: Ethiopia with a history dating as far back as the 2nd century BC has 9 sites listed on the UNESCO world heritage sites and 3 on the tentative list. Each of these sites is a must-see for tourists to Ethiopia. The Simien National park (also listed as a world heritage site) is a natural habitat for a variety of wildlife like aardvarks, baboons, buffaloes, hippos, lions, leopards, gazelles and many others including about 450 species of birds. Combine these with "The Ethiopian Orthodox Church" founded in the 4th century AD and its unique customs; churches hewn out of massive monolithic rocks at Lalibela, "The Axum Stelae Fields" at Axum, the scenic landscape of the Great Rift Valley and Ethiopia is a fascinating destination for tourism.

• Country Name: Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
• Location: East Africa having borders with Eritrea and Djibouti on the North, Somalia on the East, and Kenya on the South with Sudan and South Sudan to the west
• Size: 1,104,300sq.km.(or 426,371 sq mi.)
• Population: 90,873,739 (July 2011 est.)    73,918,505 (2007 census)
• GDP(ppp):$1,000 (2010 est.) $900 (2009, 2008 est.)
• Main Export: Coffee, lifestock and recently flowers
• Independence: Never colonized, established about 980 BC
• President: GIRMA Wolde-Giorgis from 8 october 2001
• More about Ethiopia, The kingdom of Aksum, Abyssinia, World Heritage Sites: Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
• Past Months
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• South Sudan; the world’s newest country: Republic of South Sudan
• Madagascar; the world’s most biologically diverse Island: Republic of Madagascar
• South Africa - Africa's largest economy: Republic of South Africa
• Read: Of Libya, Gaddafi and the Libyan revolution 2011 - Updates

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With 54 countries and a total population of over 1 billion people, Africa provides lots of investment opportunities at some of the cheapest costs in the world in agriculture and mining, petroleum oil and gas exploration, manufacturing, sales and services.
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