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Ethiopia: Security Assistance

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Bureau of Political-Military Affairs

Washington, DC

October 20, 2008

Background: Unique among African countries, the ancient Ethiopian monarchy maintained its freedom from colonial rule with the exception of the 1936-41 Italian occupation during World War II. In 1974, a military junta, the Derg, deposed Emperor Haile SELASSIE (who had ruled since 1930) and established a socialist state. Torn by bloody coups, uprisings, wide-scale drought, and massive refugee problems, the regime was finally toppled in 1991 by a coalition of rebel forces, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). A constitution was adopted in 1994, and Ethiopia's first multiparty elections were held in 1995. A border war with Eritrea late in the 1990s ended with a peace treaty in December 2000. The Eritrea-Ethiopia Border Commission in November 2007 remotely demarcated the border by geographical coordinates, but final demarcation of the boundary on the ground is currently on hold because of Ethiopian objections to an international commission's finding requiring it to surrender territory considered sensitive to Ethiopia. (Source: CIA—The World Factbook)

Security Assistance Funding: (Source: 2009 Congressional Budget Justification for Foreign Operations)

($ in thousands)

Account	FY 2007	FY2007	FY 2008	FY 2008	FY2009
	Actual	Supp	Estimate	Supp	Request
FMF	1,900	--	843	--	4,000
IMET	472	--	620	--	700
NADR	1,150	--	--	--	--

Direct Commercial Sales: (Source: 2007 Section 655 Report)

In FY 2007, the Department of State authorized the export of defense articles and services valued at $25,223,900.

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