Current Economic problems:

Source: http://www.universalsports.com/news/article/newsid=462834.html

Although it has one of the fastest growing non-petroleum economies in Africa, Ethiopia remains one of the continent's poorest countries. Almost two-thirds of its people are illiterate. It's economy, which revolves around agriculture - approximately one quarter of the population derives income from coffee, the country's chief export - is dependent on rainfall.

Ethiopia's location a high plateau on the Horn of Africa means it has a warm climate. , with two rainy seasons, a shorter one from February to April and a longer one, called kremt, from June to September. When rainfall during kremt is not substantial enough, particularly in the lowlands of the northeast and southeast, the country succumbs to droughts, which wreaks havoc on the agriculture and economy.

The country endured a number of droughts during the 1970s, but Ethiopia was devastated in the mid-1980s by a drought of unseen proportions and the resulting famine.

By 1984, the drought had resulted in almost total crop failure within the country. The Ethiopian government was unable to provide relief and supplies from international organizations were hindered by the country's ongoing border war with Eritrea. The drought and hazardous conditions for relief workers continued into 1985, and by the following year the famine had spread to the southern highlands and the country's problems were exacerbated by locust plagues.

An estimated 8 million people were victims of the Great Famine.

Almost 5.8 million people were dependent on international relief food.

It is widely believed that more than one million people died.
lthough conditions improved, Ethiopia is still susceptible to drought and famine. In 2003, about one fifth of the country's population was left without food and tens of thousands of people died as a result of starvation and malnutrition.

That year, the Ethiopian government and the United Nations launched a joint appeal for 1.46 million metric tons of food aid and $81.1 million non-food assistance to help over 14 million people.

In 2004 the government began a drive to move more than two million people away from the arid highlands of the east in an attempt to provide a lasting solution to food shortages. Today, many Ethiopians depend on food aid from abroad.