Ethiopia (Amharic: ኢትዮጵያ ʾĪtyōp yā) is the second-most populous country in Africa (after Nigeria) and is Africa's oldest independent country and the only one never to be colonized, save for a short Italian occupation in the 1930s and 1940s.\nLocated in the Horn of Africa region, it is bordered by Eritrea to the north (which seceded from Ethiopia in 1991 after a long and bloody war of independence), Djibouti to the northeast, Somaliland and Somalia to the east, Kenya to the south, and Sudan and South Sudan to the west.\nEthiopia is the oldest independent country in Africa and the second-oldest official Christian nation in the world after Armenia. Ethiopia is also the place of the first Hijra (615 CE) in Islamic history where the Christian king of Ethiopia offered refuge to those fleeing from Mecca and sent by the prophet Mohamed.