Afghanistan vs Ethiopia

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Afghanistan ( (listen); Pashto/Dari: افغانستان, Pashto: Afġānistān [avɣɒnisˈtɒn, ab-], Dari: Afġānestān [avɣɒnesˈtɒn]), officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country in South and Central Asia. Afghanistan is bordered by Pakistan to the east and south; Iran to the west; Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan to the north; and China to the northeast. Occupying 652,000 square kilometers (252,000 sq mi), it is a mountainous country with plains in the north and southwest. Kabul is the capital and largest city. The population is around 32 million, mostly composed of ethnic Pashtuns, Tajiks, Hazaras and Uzbeks. Human habitation in Afghanistan dates back to the Middle Paleolithic Era, and the country's strategic location along the Silk Road connected it to the cultures of the Middle East and other parts of Asia. The land has historically been home to various peoples and has witnessed numerous military campaigns, including those by Alexander the Great, Mauryas, Muslim Arabs, Mongols, British, Soviets, and by the United States with allied countries. The land also served as the source from which the Kushans, Hephthalites, Samanids, Saffarids, Ghaznavids, Ghorids, Khaljis, Mughals, Hotaks, Durranis, and others have risen to form major empires. The political history of the modern state of Afghanistan began with the Hotak and Durrani dynasties in the 18th century, with Ahmad Shah Abdali being considered as the founder of the state. In the late 19th century, Afghanistan became a buffer state in the "Great Game" between British India and the Russian Empire. Its border with British India, the Durand Line, was formed in 1893 but it is not recognized by the Afghan government and it has led to strained relations with Pakistan since the latter's independence in 1947. In the First Anglo-Afghan War, the British East India Company seized control of Afghanistan briefly, but following the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919 the country was free of foreign influence, eventually becoming a monarchy under Amanullah Khan, until almost 50 years later when Zahir Shah was overthrown and a republic was established. In 1978, after a second coup Afghanistan first became a socialist state and then a Soviet protectorate. This evoked the Soviet–Afghan War in the 1980s against mujahideen rebels. By 1996 most of Afghanistan was captured by the Islamic fundamentalist group the Taliban, who ruled as a totalitarian regime for over five years. Following the 9/11 attacks, an intervention by the US and its allies forcibly removed the Taliban from power, and a new democratically-elected government was formed, but the Taliban still control a significant portion of the country. Afghanistan is a unitary presidential Islamic republic. The country has high levels of terrorism, poverty, child malnutrition, and corruption. It is a member of the United Nations, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the Group of 77, the Economic Cooperation Organization, and the Non-Aligned Movement. Afghanistan's economy is the world's 96th largest, with a gross domestic product (GDP) of $72.9 billion by purchasing power parity; the country fares much worse in terms of per-capita GDP (PPP), ranking 169th out of 186 countries as of 2018.

Source: Wikipedia

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Ethiopia (; Amharic: ኢትዮጵያ, ʾĪtyōṗṗyā (listen), Afar: Itiyoophiyaa, Ge'ez: ኢትዮጵያ, Oromo: Itoophiyaa, Somali: Itoobiya, Tigrinya: ኢትዮጵያ), Formally the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in East Africa.

It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Kenya to the south, South Sudan to the west and Sudan to the northwest. With over 109 million inhabitants as of 2019, Ethiopia is the 12th most populous country on earth, the next most populous nation on the African continent (after Nigeria), and most populous landlocked country on earth. The country has a total area of 1,100,000 square kilometres (420,000 sq mi). Its capital and largest city is Addis Ababa, which lies several kilometres west of the East African Rift that splits the country into the African and Somali tectonic plates. Ethiopian national identity is grounded in the historic and contemporary roles of Christianity and Islam, and the independence of Ethiopia from foreign rule, stemming from the many ancient Ethiopian kingdoms of antiquity.Some of the oldest skeletal evidence for anatomically modern humans has been found in Ethiopia. It is widely considered as the area from which modern humans first set out to the Middle East and areas outside. According to linguists, the first Afroasiatic-speaking populations settled in the Horn region during the ensuing Neolithic era. Tracing its roots to the 2nd century BC, Ethiopia's governmental system was a monarchy for most of its history. Oral literature tells that the monarchy was founded by the Solomonic dynasty of the Queen of Sheba, under its first king, Menelik I. From the first decades, the Kingdom of Aksum maintained a unified civilization in the area, followed by the Ethiopian Empire c. 1270. Throughout the late--19th-century Scramble for Africa, Ethiopia and Liberia were the only two nations that preserved their sovereignty from long-term colonisation by a European colonial power, and many newly independent nations on the continent subsequently adopted its flag colors. However, the country was later occupied by Italy in 1936 and became Italian Ethiopia (part of Italian East Africa), until it was liberated during World War II. Throughout the Italian rule, the government abolished slavery, a practice that existed in the country for centuries, and urbanization steadily improved. Ethiopia was the first independent African member of the 20th-century League of Nations and the United Nations. In 1974, the Ethiopian monarchy under Haile Selassie was overthrown by the Derg, a communist military government backed by the Soviet Union. In 1987, the Derg established the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, but it was overthrown in 1991 by the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, which has become the ruling political coalition since. Ethiopia and Eritrea utilize the ancient Ge'ez script, which is one of the oldest alphabets still being used in the world. They follow the Ethiopian calendar, which is roughly seven decades and three months behind the Gregorian calendar. A majority of the population adheres to Christianity (mainly the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and P'ent'ay), and the historic Kingdom of Aksum was one of the first states to officially adopt the faith, whereas around a third follows Islam (primarily Sunni). The country is the website of the Islamic Migration to Abyssinia and the oldest Muslim settlement in Africa, at Negash. A considerable population of Ethiopian Jews, known as Bete Israel, also dwelt in Ethiopia before the 1980s. Ethiopia is a multilingual nation, with around 80 ethnolinguistic groups, the four largest of which are the Oromo, Amhara, Somali and Tigrayans. Many people in the country speak Afroasiatic languages of the Cushitic or Semitic branches. Furthermore, Omotic languages are spoken by ethnic minority groups inhabiting the southern areas. Nilo-Saharan languages are also spoken by the country's Nilotic ethnic minorities. Oromo is the most populous language by native speakers, while Amharic is the most populous by number of speakers and functions as the working language in the federal government. Ge'ez remains important as a liturgical language for both the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church and for the Beta Israel. The nation is a land of natural contrasts, with its vast fertile west, its forests and its numerous rivers, as well as the world's hottest settlement of Dallol in its north. The Ethiopian Highlands are the largest continuous mountain ranges in Africa, along with the Sof Omar Caves comprises the largest cave on the continent. Ethiopia also has the second-largest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Africa. Also, the sovereign state is a founding member of the UN, the Group of 24 (G-24), the Non-Aligned Movement, the G77 and the Organisation of African Unity. Its capital city, Addis Ababa, serves as the headquarters of the African Union, the Pan African Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, the African Standby Force and many of the international NGOs concentrated on Africa. In the 1970s and 1980s, Ethiopia experienced civil conflicts and communist purges, which hindered its economy. The country has since recovered and as of 2010 has the largest economy (by GDP) in East Africa, in addition to having the largest population in the area. Despite these developments, it remains one of the world's poorest countries. In addition to poverty, Ethiopia faces hunger, corruption, weak infrastructure, and inadequate respect for human rights and access to health and education (with an illiteracy rate of 51 percent ), standing in the worst quartile on the Human Development Index.

Source: Wikipedia