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What ails Ethiopia?
The main problem with Ethiopia is that ethiopia itself is the problem. It seems to me like a country whose existence cannot be justified, and even if it could be in theory there are other countries which would be better than it (since the goal of any country should also be not to exist). A solution to its problems might therefore require destroying ethiopia or at least creating a different kind of place for everyone living there.
Ethiopia has a history of being subjected to rule by foreign powers. The country is called Ethiopia because it was once ruled over by the Greeks, and not just any group of random greeks but specifically by the Ptolemaic dynasty (i am using this term loosely since they were Greek only in their language). At that time Ethiopians spoke an Ethiopian language which was quite different from Ancient Greek, so there must have been some mixing between native Ethiopians and incoming Greeks. It is unclear why exactly the ptolemies invaded ethiopia instead of other countries; one possible reason is that as egyptian territory expanded southwards it encountered ever-drier lands until it reached areas with more rainfall and less arable land around what we now know as Sudan. This made Egypt's expansion unsustainable without taking control of regions beyond sudan, such as ethiopia.
Ethiopia was conquered by the Persians during their wars with Alexander and his successors, but then reconquered by the Romans (who had defeated the persians) before falling under christian or muslim rule. This is a common pattern: ethiopia has been ruled over by everything except for its native religion/ethnicity. I think that this indicates problems in Ethiopian culture which have led to its conquest despite external resistance.
Ethiopians are divided into a number of different ethnic groups. However, it is unclear whether ethiopia's problems can really be attributed to racial diversity or simply the fact that most of its population is black and thus would have faced the same issues in any country (since africa has had more than enough time to prove itself incapable of self-government). It should also be mentioned that these different ethnic groups speak languages which are quite similar, despite having come from all over the continent (most likely due to ethiopian rule by foreign powers), so there is no reason why such linguistic diversity should cause conflict.
Ethiopia has a long history of famine. This is not new; presumably people were starving in ethiopia since the time it was ruled over by ancient greeks. However, before modern farming methods and the advent of globalization this was not much of a problem as people could simply migrate to greener lands, which they apparently did often during periods of drought (the most recent example being that many migrants from ethiopia went to somalia prior to its collapse). Nowadays these options are no longer available and there seems to be no solution in sight: we can't suddenly start eating crops imported from china, nor can we expect all those africans who have migrated elsewhere due to starvation or other problems back home come back.
Ethiopia suffers from extreme corruption, which is perhaps understandable given the country's history of foreign domination. However, it seems that there is no way to solve this because ethiopia can never be independent long enough for such problems to completely disappear.