Ethiopia: Geography, Capital, and Regional Significance

#GS-2 #Current Events #International #Geography #Physical Geography

Why in News

The Prime Minister of India congratulated Abiy Ahmed Ali and the ruling Prosperity Party after their major victory in the general election.

Ethiopia is an independent republic located in East Africa and stands as one of the oldest nations in the world.
It acts as a key diplomatic and economic center for Africa and shares a strong historical relationship with India.

The country is situated right inside the Horn of Africa in the eastern part of the continent.
The capital city of the nation is Addis Ababa.
Ethiopia holds the title of the most populous landlocked nation across the globe.
It shares its land boundaries with six neighboring countries which include Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, South Sudan, and Sudan.

The Ethiopian Highlands form a massive mountain range covering the western and eastern parts and are known as the Roof of Africa.
Ras Dashen stands as the highest mountain peak in the country within this highland region.
The Great Rift Valley runs diagonally across the nation, splitting the highlands and featuring large lakes along with volcanic sites.
The Danakil Depression sits inside the Afar Triangle and ranks among the lowest and hottest places on Earth with salt flats and active volcanoes like Erta Ale.
Lake Tana in the northwest acts as the main source of the Blue Nile river, supplying most of the water to the downstream Nile.
The peripheral lowlands near Somalia and Sudan feature dry savannas and shrublands.