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Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
የኢትዮጵያ ፌደራላዊ ዴሞክራሲያዊ ሪፐብሊክ (Amharic)
Anthem: 
ወደፊት ገስግሺ ፣ ውድ እናት ኢትዮጵያ
(English: "March Forward, Dear Mother Ethiopia")
Location of Ethiopia
ISO 3166 codeET

Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the Northeast, East and Southeast, Kenya to the South, South Sudan to the West, and Sudan to the Northwest. Ethiopia covers a land area of 1,112,000 square kilometres (472,000 sq. miles). , it is home to around 128 million inhabitants, making it the 13th-most populous country in the world, the 2nd-most populous in Africa after Nigeria, and the most populated landlocked country on Earth. The national capital and largest city, Addis Ababa, lies several kilometres west of the East African Rift that splits the country into the African and Somali tectonic plates.

Anatomically modern humans emerged from modern-day Ethiopia and set out for the Near East and elsewhere in the Middle Paleolithic period. Southwestern Ethiopia has been proposed as a possible homeland of the Afroasiatic language family. In 980 BC, the Kingdom of D'mt extended its realm over Eritrea and the northern region of Ethiopia, while the Kingdom of Aksum maintained a unified civilization in the region for 900 years. Christianity was embraced by the kingdom in 330, and Islam arrived by the first Hijra in 615. After the collapse of Aksum in 960, the Zagwe dynasty ruled the north-central parts of Ethiopia until being overthrown by Yekuno Amlak in 1270, inaugurating the Ethiopian Empire and the Solomonic dynasty, claimed descent from the biblical Solomon and Queen of Sheba under their son Menelik I. By the 14th century, the empire had grown in prestige through territorial expansion and fighting against adjacent territories; most notably, the Ethiopian–Adal War (1529–1543) contributed to fragmentation of the empire, which ultimately fell under a decentralization known as Zemene Mesafint in the mid-18th century. Emperor Tewodros II ended Zemene Mesafint at the beginning of his reign in 1855, marking the reunification and modernization of Ethiopia. (Full article...)

Learn more about Ethiopia, its history, and its culture
The Ilemi Triangle region is at the north-western corner of Lake Turkana.

The Ilemi Triangle, sometimes called only Ilemi, is a disputed area in East Africa. Arbitrarily defined, it measures about 11,000 square kilometres (4,200 sq mi). The term "Ilemi" may more accurately be transcribed as "Elemi" in the Didinga language, signifying acceptance. This suggest that, in Didinga history, the region became favorable when they arrived, evidenced by the thriving health of the cattle that accepted the local vegetation, indicating a symbiotic relationship between the cattle's well-being and the area. The territory is claimed by South Sudan and Kenya. The territory also borders Ethiopia and, despite use and trespass into the triangle by border tribes from within Ethiopia, the Ethiopian government has not made any official claim on the area, instead agreeing that the land was Sudanese territory in the 1902, 1907, and 1972 treaties.

Kenya now has de facto control of all the territory in the Ilemi Triangle up to the northern 1950 Sudanese Patrol Line. The dispute arose from the 1914 treaty in which a straight parallel line was used to divide territories that were both part of the British Empire. However the Turkana people—nomadic herders—continued to move to and from the border and traditionally grazed in the area. (Full article...)
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A portrait of Sabagadis seeking the intercessions of St. Mary, on the wall iconography at the church of Gunda Gunde, Tigray.
Sabagadis Woldu (Tigrinya: ሳባጋዲስ ዎልዱ; horse name: Abba Garray; baptismal name: Za-Manfas Qedus; 1780 – 1831) was a governor of Tigray Province of the Ethiopian Empire from 1822 to 1831. Sabagadis gained some notoriety in the first decade of the 19th century for rebelling a number of times against his overlord, Ras Wolde Selassie. But just before the death of Wolde Selassie it seems that he made up with his master and became one of his loyal lieutenants. Following Wolde Selassie's death in 1816, he defied the authority of Wolde Selassie's son, and became the most powerful warlord in Tigray. Making Adigrat his capital, he ruled Tigray and a small strip of the coastal plains of Eritrea by 1818. His rule also extended to the Eritrean highlands (Hamasien, Akele Guzay, and Seraye). (Full article...)

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