Nov 8 (Reuters) - Somalia seems to be rushing towards war but mutual fear and complex international interests could yet forestall a conflict that would engulf the Horn of Africa in a sea of ancient and modern rivalries. Here are some details on the Horn. WHAT IS THE HORN OF AFRICA: -- The horn is a peninsula of East Africa that juts into the Arabian Sea. -- The term also refers to the greater region containing the countries of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia. It covers approximately 2 million sq km. The population is around 86.5 million people. Sudan and Kenya are sometimes included. -- Somalia's main religion is Islam (Sunni), with a small Christian minority. About half of Ethiopia's population are Muslim and half Ethiopian Orthodox Christian. Nearly half of all Eritreans are Coptic Christians and most of the rest are Muslims. There are also Catholic and Protestant minorities. -- Eritrea is one of the world's most aid-dependent nations. Ethiopia receives the lion's share of European development aid to sub-Saharan Africa and foreign donors finance about one-third of it's annual budget. Donors have largely forgotten Somalia, where aid has dropped off since a disastrous and bloody international intervention in the early 1990s. CONFLICT IN THE HORN: DOMESTIC TURMOIL: -- SOMALIA - The rise of the Islamists, who control much of the south after seizing the capital Mogadishu from U.S.-backed warlords in June, threatens the government's attempts to reimpose central rule on a country in chaos since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. Since June, the Islamists have gained control of important ports and airfields. The interim government is confined to the provincial town of Baidoa. -- ETHIOPIA - The government arrested thousands of opposition members and others after two bouts of violence following May 2005 parliamentary elections. At least 82 people were killed in clashes in the capital, Addis Ababa, and some have suggested nearly double that number died. Ethiopia also has active rebel groups, including the Oromo Liberation Front, which represents the country's largest ethnic group and is fighting for independence for the Oromo region. The government says Eritrea backs the OLF, which Eritrea denies. The Ogaden National Liberation Front, which wants self-determination for Ethiopia's ethnically Somali Ogaden region is also active. -- ERITREA - The government has been holding 21 politicians and journalists for five years without trial following a crackdown on dissidents and independent media. Before the September 2001 crackdown, the media had played a growing role in fostering open dissent in Eritrea, where President Isaias Afwerki has ruled since the country gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after a 30-year liberation struggle. CROSS-BORDER TENSIONS: SOMALIA - Ethiopia and Somalia have been rivals throughout history. Ethiopia has sent troops into Somalia to attack radical Islamic movements, wary they could stir trouble in the ethnically Somali regions on its side of the border. -- Several times from 1992 to 1998, Ethiopian soldiers attacked members of al-Itihaad al-Islaami, a militant Somali group Washington has on a list of organisations linked to terrorism. The Islamist leader in Somalia, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, was head of its military wing during that time. -- The United States has accused Eritrea of opening another front against Ethiopia by shipping arms to Somali Islamists. Eritrea has long denied any involvement in Somalia, but reports to the U.N. Security Council have documented numerous weapons shipments by Eritrea to the Islamists. -- The Islamists, who have been expanding across southern Somalia, recently declared holy war on Ethiopia, saying its troops have been sent into Somalia to prop up the interim government. Addis Ababa has denied sending anything but military advisers but defended its right to protect its borders and threatened to "crush" the Islamists. ERITREA/ETHIOPIA - In 1998 the town of Badme was the flashpoint for the Ethiopia-Eritrea border war which killed 70,000 people and ended with a 2000 peace deal under which both sides agreed to accept an independent ruling on their common frontier. -- The border between the two countries is heavily guarded by both sides, and monitored by a U.N. mission with 2,300 peacekeepers. -- Ethiopia's refusal to allow the demarcation of the border according to an independent ruling has infuriated Eritrea, which demands the ruling be accepted as agreed. Ethiopia says the ruling unfairly cuts villages, farms and homes in half.
