Disputes – International

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. UN Peacekeeping Mission to Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), which has monitored the 25-km-wide Temporary Security Zone in Eritrea since 2000, is extended for six months in 2007 despite Eritrean restrictions on its operations and reduced force of 17,000

The undemarcated former British administrative line has little meaning as a political separation to rival clans within Ethiopia's Ogaden and southern Somalia's Oromo region. Ethiopian forces invaded southern Somalia and routed Islamist Courts from Mogadishu in January 2007. "Somaliland" secessionists provide port facilities in Berbera and trade ties to landlocked Ethiopia. Civil unrest in eastern Sudan has hampered efforts to demarcate the porous boundary with Ethiopia.

Refugees and internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)

In 2007, there were 66,980 Sudanese, 16,576 Somali and 13,078 Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia.

In that same year IDPs numbered around 200,000 (border war with Eritrea from 1998-2000, ethnic clashes in Gambela, and ongoing Ethiopian military counter-insurgency in Somali region). Most IDPs are in Tigray and Gambela Provinces.

Illicit Drugs

Ethiopia is a transit hub for heroin originating in Southwest and Southeast Asia and destined for Europe, as well as cocaine destined for markets in southern Africa. There is also cultivation of 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 centre.