Ethiopia in 2010

1,063,652 sq km (410,678 sq mi)
(2010 est.): 79,456,000
Addis Ababa
President Girma Wolde-Giyorgis
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi

At a rally on May 25, 2010, in Addis Ababa, Eth., supporters of the ruling Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front celebrate the party’s presumptive victory in legislative elections.Anita Powell/APEthiopia held important national and regional legislative elections in May 2010. The ruling Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and allied parties extended their domination of the political landscape, winning 545 out of 547 seats in the House of Peoples’ Representatives, the lower house of the national legislature. Only one opposition party candidate and one independent candidate won seats. This was the culmination of a consolidation of political power that followed the highly disputed, violent election of 2005. Much of the opposition leadership from that election remained abroad, and one leader, Birtukan Mideksa, was in and out of prison, released from her life sentence on October 6, after having been pardoned in 2007 and incarcerated again in 2008. The opposition’s failure to form a unified, coherent coalition, the continued blurring of the line between party and state administrative functions, and the weakening of civil society and the private press had all contributed to EPRDF’s monopoly of power.

Although declines in global demand for important imports such as coffee had an impact, the steadily growing agriculture-based Ethiopian economy was expected to expand by about 7% in 2010. But even as the economy grew, high inflation, rising food prices, stagnant wages, and limited employment opportunities strained local households. The government’s continued emphasis on infrastructure and public-service expenditure (as well as on revenue collection) resulted in substantial improvements in sectors such as primary education, which had experienced staggering 500% growth over the past 20 years. The government responded to international pressure to improve its foreign currency reserves and trade balance by devaluing the birr (the national currency) for the third time in a year, this time by 16% in early September, a dramatic move that met with approval from economists but mixed response from the business community and ordinary Ethiopians.

Nearly half of Ethiopia’s overwhelmingly rural population lived below the poverty line, and the need for food aid—though down from 2009 levels—remained high in 2010, with about 5 million of the country’s 80 million people dependent on some form of assistance. While the government viewed hydropower as one of the country’s most valuable resources—with the potential to both address Ethiopia’s persistent power shortage and provide power for export—large-scale hydropower projects such as the Gibe dam projects on the Omo River remained controversial. There was great concern regarding the impact of these projects on both the environment and local communities.

The border dispute with Eritrea continued throughout 2010 with little change. Neither country had taken steps to demarcate the border in keeping with the 2002 ruling of the Eritrea Ethiopia Boundary Commission, which Ethiopia rejected. The Ethiopian military continued to engage in periodic battles with small but persistent domestic armed insurgencies, particularly those in the Somali region of the country, but its troops mostly stayed out of neighbouring Somalia after the 2006–09 invasion.