Population: 60 million

Languages: 80

National language: Amharic

Life expectancy: 47 years for men and 50 for women

War: At war with Eritrea; the war is confined to the northern boundary.

Aid: It is estimated that some eight million Ethiopians may need food aid this year, if the rains don't come.

Education: Statistics for 1995-96 show that the gross enrolment ratio for the school age population of seven to 18 years was 23.7 per cent. This ranges from a low of 3.9 per cent in Afar to a high of 67.4 per cent in Addis Ababa. Primary level: About 11,000 schools in 1995, including 719 non-governmental schools, enrolled nearly 3.8 million students. Girls in primary schools constitute only 36.8 per cent of total enrolment.

Only one in 10 children who enter primary school complete the 12th grade. At second level, capacity is very limited, with only 346 senior secondary schools (34 private), with total enrolment of 402,753 students. Rural areas and girls are not well served, with poor quality education leading to high drop-out rates. Poor performance is linked to a number of factors including inadequate facilities, shortage of books, inadequate teacher training (a high proportion of teachers are untrained or poorly trained).

At third level, women account for 10 per cent of enrolment.

The aims of the government's Education Sector Development Programme (1997 to 2001) is "to improve educational attainment of the population while achieving greater social equity and to lay the foundations for achieving universal primary education by the year 2015".

It is estimated that some 40 per cent of children of school-going age get to attend school.