Awra Amba RJ 300612 EN - Contacter un comité local d'Attac

2. Background history and geographical situation
Figure 3:
Age distribution of the 2005 Awra Amba population according to data from Atnafu
(2005/32) and of the rural population of the South Gondar zone in 2007 (CSA,
2007/77), and cumulated distributions.
The population increase was interrupted during the exile period (1988-1993), especially because no
marriage happened during these years (At05/33). It appears in Figure 3, where the 10-14 children are
not a lot, compensated by more children younger than 10, in comparison to rural population of South
Gondar. The age distribution shows also a quite abrupt decrease after 19 years. Globally, the
population of Awra Amba contains more children and adults younger than 40 than the rural
population of South Gondar, less people between 40 and 70 and a bit more people older than 70.
2.3. Geographical situation
Awra Amba is a very small community. We place it quickly in the different administrative and
geographical structures, from the biggest, Ethiopia, to the smallest, the community itself, giving
some characteristics of each.
The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia is located in the Horn of Africa (Figure 4). It is a
landlocked country, bordered by Somalia to the southeast, Sudan to the west, South Sudan to the
southwest, Kenya to the south, Djibouti to the east and Eritrea to the north. The country has 91
millions of inhabitants and occupies 1 127 000 km 2 , i.e. nearly two times France. Its altitude varies
from -120 m to 4 543 m. It combines high plateaus (especially the central plateau between 1 800 and
3 000 m high), steep mountains and canyons, volcanic areas, savannah, desert regions and green high
plains. It is a federal republic divided into nine regional states (including Amhara region) and two
chartered cities (the capital city Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa).
From a socio-economic perspective, Ethiopia has a Human development index (which mixes
indicators of national wealth, education and health) among the lowest in the world, but also an
ecological footprint (which mixes indicators of non-renewable energy consumption, greenhouse gas
emission and land take) very low, making it a less developed but very "ecological" country (see
Figure 5). Yassin (2008/2) emphasizes the increasing pandemics, reducing the workforce needed by
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