Africa’s largest-ever scientific study of how the continent is gradually splitting apart was unveiled on Thursday. Experts from around the world have gathered in Addis Ababa for the international project which will reveal how Africa is breaking up along the East African Rift Valley.

Is the formal education system the best avenue for delivery of effective environmental education? Can Ethiopia's newly decentralised educational administrations work with other arms of government and farmers to tackle the short-term and unsustainable resource exploitation patterns which imperil prospects of ever achieving food self-sufficiency?

Carol Bellamy is the Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). She has just ended a two-day visit to Ethiopia to witness at first hand the scale of the drought there. Here are excerpts from her interview with IRIN, during which she talked about HIV/AIDS, the drought, genetically modified food, land distribution and the responsibilities of the
government and donors.

Ethiopia’s ruling coalition is stifling opposition groups in the country which is leading to increased ethnic violence, the European Union (EU) has said. It said a “remaining challenge” facing the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) was to advance democracy in the country.

The Ethiopian Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, has made an urgent appeal for 1.4 million metric tons of food aid, as his country faces a famine potentially as severe as the 1984 crisis.

At least 33 Sudanese refugees have been shot dead in violent clashes at a refugee camp in western Ethiopia, humanitarian organisations said on Monday.

Ethiopia’s Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin has said trade between Africa and China should be on an equal footing whereby both benefit. Addressing a meeting in Addis Ababa on trade between China and the African continent, he said that the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) must play a key role in forging any trade relations between the two.

A coalition of major aid organisations launched an appeal Wednesday for new donations of food assistance for Ethiopia, which is facing its worst hunger crisis since the famine of the mid-1980s.

When the government of Mengistu Hailemariam was overthrown and replaced by a new government headed by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi in 1991, Eritreans had hoped that there was finally a government in Ethiopia that had foresworn hegemonic ambitions towards Eritrea. The war (1998-2000) shattered this illusion. Eritreans had also hoped that with the conclusion of the war of independence and a presumably friendly new government in Ethiopia, Eritrea would focus on rebuilding political, social, and economic institutions. The war derailed such hopes. By carefully documenting the events of the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea, the author unravels the complexity of the dispute and places it in the context of both a regional and international political dynamic.

Ethiopia's emerging crisis can be laid in part at the doorstep of international creditors, argue debt campaigners. The country's over $500 million in debt payments could have been used to strengthen irrigation systems and other drought-prevention strategies.

Several thousand Eritrean ethnic Kunamas who sought refuge in Ethiopia during the 1998-2000 border war may be exempted from a UN ruling ending refugee status for Eritreans living in exile, UN sources have told IRIN.

Abyan Abdinur has a roof over her head. Other than that she has nothing. She has seen two of her children die, lost the few possessions she owned and all her livestock - her most valuable asset - have perished. Abyan is an internally displaced person (IDP), someone who has been forced to flee their home due to war, ethnic cleansing, or natural disasters like famine.

At least 20 women have been shot dead in northeastern Ethiopia, humanitarian sources told IRIN last Friday. The women, all ethnic Afars, were killed as they were on their way home from a market, the sources confirmed. The shooting, which took place in late October, is believed to be part of increasing tensions in the Afar Regional State sparked by a severe drought affecting many parts of the country.

Ethiopia was criticised on Friday for ignoring an order by the international Boundary Commission to remove resettled Ethiopians from Eritrean territory. The Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC), which met the two sides in London last week, said the Ethiopian government had “not complied with its obligations”.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has warned that Ethiopia faces a famine worse than that of 1984, saying 6 million Ethiopians are in need of food aid and 15 million could face starvation early next year. World Food Program Ethiopia head Georgia Shaver echoed the warning, saying that while up to 14 million people need food aid across six southern African countries, "In Ethiopia, we could have the same number in just one country."

A tatty poster peeling off a wall at the Ministry of Trade and Industry depicts Ethiopia as enjoying 13 months of sunshine – a land of golden opportunity. With economic growth rates outstripping almost every other country in Africa, and a vast population, the potential, according to trade officials, clearly exists. However, within the country itself, massive obstacles remain. Businessmen assert that many opportunities are strangled before birth. Economists say despite growth rates in excess of 5 percent, desperately low incomes stand in the way of real long-term economic gains.

Ethiopia’s anti-AIDS taskforce came under fire on Wednesday for failing to fund projects aimed at tackling the virus – despite a three-year US $59 million loan from the World Bank. The National HIV/AIDS Secretariat has spent just one fifth of the funds in the last two years despite the pandemic sweeping the Horn of Africa country.

At least 10 children have starved to death among drought-stricken families who fled to one of Ethiopia's most important national parks seeking refuge. The children were among some 20,000 people who have descended on Bale National Park in search of food, according to the UN's Emergencies Unit for Ethiopia (EUE).

Ethiopia and Eritrea are facing severe food shortages that could affect over 15 million people across the two countries. Crops across the region have been devastated by the failure of the first or 'belg' rains and the late arrival of the main rains. This is according to a Catholic relief organisation.

The Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital provides specialised surgery offering a cure to Ethiopian women affected by fistula which can leave a woman permanently incontinent. The Fistula Hospital - one of only three of its kind in the world - was founded in 1975 by Australian-born doctor Catherine Hamlin and her husband Sir Reg Hamlin. Obstructed labour affects five per cent of all women in the world but in most cases the problem can be treated immediately by Caesarean section. In Ethiopia, and other places in sub-Saharan Africa, it's a different story.