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Ethiopia Boundaries: International and Administrative
Except for the Red Sea coastline, only limited stretches of
the country's borders are defined by natural features. Most
of Ethiopia's borders have been delimited by treaty. The
Ethiopia-Somalia boundary has long been an exception,
however. One of its sectors has never been definitively
demarcated, thanks to disputed interpretations of 1897 and
1908 treaties signed by Britain, Italy, and Ethiopia. This
sector was delimited by a provisional "Administrative Line"
that was defined by a 1950 Anglo-Ethiopian agreement, when
the United Nations (UN) established Somalia as a trust
territory. After it became independent in 1960, Somalia
refused to recognize any of the border treaties signed
between Ethiopia and the former colonial powers. The Somali
government also demanded a revision of the boundary that
would ensure self-determination for Somali living in the
Ogaden. Consequently, the frontier became the scene of
recurrent violence and open warfare between Ethiopia and
Somalia.
Data as of 1991
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