Ethiopia Issues - 2024

Disputes - international

Ethiopia-Eritrea: Eritrea and Ethiopia agreed to abide by the 2002 Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission's (EEBC) delimitation decision, but neither party responded to the revised line detailed in the November 2006 EEBC Demarcation Statement

Ethiopia-Kenya: their border was demarcated in the 1950s and approved in 1970; in 2012, Kenya and Ethiopia agreed to redemarcate their boundary following disputes over beacons and cross-border crime; that process is ongoing as of 2023

Ethiopia-Somalia: the undemarcated former British administrative line has little meaning as a political separation to rival clans within Ethiopia's Ogaden (populated largely by ethnic Somalis) and southern Somalia's Oromo region; the Somalia-based terrorist group al-Shabaab has conducted cross-border assaults into Ethiopia as recently as 2022

Ethiopia-South Sudan: while border clashes continue in the al-Fashqa (Fashaga) area, the US views the 1902 boundary treaty between Ethiopia and Sudan as being in force

Ethiopia-Sudan: Ethiopia's construction of a large dam (the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam) on the Blue Nile in northern Ethiopia since 2011 has become a focal point of relations with Egypt and Sudan; Egypt has described the giant hydroelectric project as an existential threat because of its potential to control the flow of the river that is a key source of water for the country; Ethiopia completed filling the dam in 2023

Refugees and internally displaced persons

refugees (country of origin): 167,391 (Eritrea) (2023); 420,502 (South Sudan), 314,976 (Somalia), 111,778 (Sudan) (refugees since 15 April 2023) (2024)

IDPs: 4.385 million (includes conflict- and climate-induced IDPs, excluding unverified estimates from the Amhara region; border war with Eritrea from 1998-2000; ethnic clashes; and ongoing fighting between the Ethiopian military and separatist rebel groups in the Somali and Oromia regions; natural disasters; intercommunal violence; most IDPs live in Sumale state) (2023)

Illicit drugs

transit hub for heroin originating in Southwest and Southeast Asia and destined for Europe, as well as cocaine destined for markets in southern Africa; cultivates qat (khat) for local use and regional export, principally to Djibouti and Somalia (legal in all three countries); the lack of a well-developed financial system limits the country's utility as a money laundering center