red isosceles triangle (based on the hoist side) dividing the flag into two right triangles; the upper triangle is green, the lower one is blue; a gold wreath encircling a gold olive branch is centered on the hoist side of the red triangle

Coat of Arms

• hot, dry desert strip along Red Sea coast; cooler and wetter in the central highlands (up to 61 cm of rainfall annually); semiarid in western hills and lowlands; rainfall heaviest during June-September except in coastal desert

• 15 00 N, 39 00 E

• total: 1,626 km
  border countries: Djibouti 109 km, Ethiopia 912 km, Sudan 605 km

• Eastern Africa , bordering the Red Sea , between Djibouti and Sudan

• gold, potash, zinc, copper, salt, possibly oil and natural gas, fish

• total: 121,320 sq km
  land: 121,320 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
• (Compare to other countries)

• dominated by extension of Ethiopian north-south trending highlands, descending on the east to a coastal desert plain, on the northwest to hilly terrain and on the southwest to flat-to-rolling plains

• strategic geopolitical position along world's busiest shipping lanes; Eritrea retained the entire coastline of Ethiopia along the Red Sea upon de jure independence from Ethiopia on 24 May 1993

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National parks & reserves

• Dahlak Marine National Park

Eritrea had been ruled by many powers before it was colonised by the Italians in 1885. Previously, the coast was long occupied by the Ottoman Turks, who then left it to their Egyptian heirs in the mid 19th century. The interior, particularly the Christian highlands of Hamasien, Akale Guzai, and Serai, were traditionally loosely associated with the Abyssinian Empire. An Italian Roman Catholic priest by the name of Sapetto purchased the port of Assab from the Afar Sultan (a vassal of the Emperor of Ethiopia) on behalf of an Italian commercial conglomerate. Later, as the Egyptians retreated out of Sudan during the Mahdist rebellion, the British brokered an agreement whereby the Egyptians could retreat through Ethiopia, and in exchange they would allow the Emperor to occupy those lowland districts that he had disputed with the Turks and Egyptians. Emperor Yohannis IV believed this included Massawa, but instead, the port was handed by the Egyptians and the British, to the Italians, who united it with the already colonised port of Asab to form a coastal Italian possession. The Italians took advantage of disorder in northern Ethiopia following the death of Emperor Yohannis IV to occupy the highlands, and established their new colony, henceforth known as Eritrea, and achieved recognition by Ethiopia's new Emperor Menelik II.

The Italians remained the colonial power in Eritrea until they were defeated by Allied forces in World War II (1941), and Eritrea became a British protectorate. After the war, the United Nations, after a lengthy inquiry in which those who wanted union with Ethiopia and those who wanted independence lobbied the great powers and the U.N. extensively, eventually reached a compromise that the former Italian colony was to join Ethiopia as part of a federation. Eritrea would have its own parliament and administration, and would be represented in the Ethiopian parliament which would function as the Federal Parliament. The Emperor of Ethiopia, Emperor Haile Selassie, would be the monarch of Eritrea and would be represented there by a viceroy. Both unionists and pro-independence people found the federation to be undesirable. By a show of military force in the Eritrean Parliament the federation was dissolved by Ethiopia. The Emperor agreed readily and annexed Eritrea in 1960 even over the serious reservations of his Prime Minister, Aklilu Hapte-Wold who was ardently in favor of retaining the federation. Promptly, pro-independence Eritreans went into rebellion and launched a long war of independence. They were joined by disaffected federationists who now were convinced Eritrea would be better off as an independent state. The war would last 30 years.

The war of Eritrean Independence would escalate considerably after the overthrow of the Ethiopian monarchy in 1974, when a hardline Marxist military junta known as the Derg seized power, and launched a major offensive in Eritrea. The brutality of the government of dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam did much to increase the numbers of the independence movements supporters to the point that Eritrean became almost exclusively pro-independence by the mid 1980's.

The liberation struggle was dominated by two movements, the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF), often refered to as "Jebha", and by the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF), often known as "Shaebia". The ELF was dominated by Muslim lowlanders, and was a conservative grass roots movement, whereas the EPLF was dominated by Christian highlanders, and professed Marxism-Leninism. The ELF received backing from the more conservative Arab governments, whereas the EPLF from the more leftist ones, and some Eastern bloc countries which abandoned it in favor of the Derg regime in Ethiopia upon the Ethiopian revolution. The ELF and EPLF made attempts to consolidate their operations, but soon found that they could not work together. The ELF was eventually overshadowed and eliminated by the EPLF.

The long war ended in 1991, when joint Eritrean and rebellious Ethiopian forces defeated the Ethiopian army, and the Derg regime fell. Two years later, after a referendum, Eritrean independence was declared. The leader of the EPLF, Isaias Afewerki, became Eritrea's first Provisional President. The Eritrean Peoples Liberation front (EPLF or Shaebia), bacame the sole legal ruling party, and changed its name to the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ).

In 1998, a border war with Ethiopia resulted in the deaths of thousands of soldiers from both countries, and subjected Eritrea to significant economic and social stresses, including massive population displacement, reduced economic development, and one of Africa's more severe landmine problems. The Ethiopian government, once firm allies of the Eritrean authorities, expelled large numbers of Eritreans and Ethiopians of Eritrean heritage from Ethiopia at the outset of the war. These once-prosperous people found themselves suddenly dispossessed and dropped off in the border zone between the two countries, adding to the serious displaced-persons problem.

In spite of initially promising economic and political strides, the Eritrean government cracked down on the free press and on opposition in 1998 when questions about the conduct of the war were raised. The government also failed to implement the new Constitution and to hold long-promised elections. Later, the government of Eritrea enforced the Italian colonial practice of requiring government approval of all practiced religions. Currently approved religions are the Eritrean Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church, the Eritrean Mekane Yesus Evangelical Lutheran Church, and Islam. All other sects in general, and fundamentalist Evangelical Protestant Christians in particular, were suppressed across the country.

The Eritrean-Ethiopian War ended in 2000 with a negotiated agreement known as the Algiers Agreement. One of the terms of the agreement was the establishment of a UN peacekeeping operation, known as the United Nations Mission in Eritrea and Ethiopia (UNMEE); over 4,000 UN peacekeepers remain as of August 2004. Another term of the Algiers Agreement was the establishment of a final demarcation of the disputed border area between Eritrea and Ethiopia. An independent, UN-associated boundary commission known as the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC), after extensive study, issued a final border ruling in April 2002, but its decision was rejected by Ethiopia. As of October 2005 the border question remains in dispute, even while a tentative and tense ceasefire remains in place. From Wikipedia.

What is now Eritrea had been ruled by the various local or international powers that successively dominated the Red Sea region.

Previously, the coast was long occupied by the Ottoman Turks, who then left it to their Egyptian heirs in the mid 19th century. The interior, particularly the Christian highlands of Hamasien, Akale Guzai, and Serai, were traditionally loosely associated with the Abyssinian Empire.

The EPLF captured Afabet, headquarters of the Ethiopian Army in northeastern Eritrea, prompting the Ethiopian Army to withdraw from its garrisons in Eritrea's western lowlands. EPLF fighters then moved into position around Keren, Eritrea's second-largest city.

Meanwhile, other dissident movements were making headway throughout Ethiopia. At the end of the 1980s, the Soviet Union informed Mengistu that it would not be renewing its defense and cooperation agreement. With the withdrawal of Soviet support and supplies, the Ethiopian Army's morale plummeted, and the EPLF--along with other Ethiopian rebel forces--advanced on Ethiopian positions.

In mid-May, Mengistu resigned as head of the Ethiopian Government and went into exile in Zimbabwe, leaving a caretaker government in Addis Ababa. Later that month, the United States chaired talks in London to formalize the end of the war. The four major combatant groups, including the EPLF, attended these talks.

Having defeated the Ethiopian forces in Eritrea, EPLF troops took control of their homeland. In May, the EPLF established the Provisional Government of Eritrea (PGE) to administer Eritrean affairs until a referendum could be held on independence and a permanent government established. EPLF leader Isaias became the head of the PGE, and the EPLF Central Committee served as its legislative body.

A high-level U.S. delegation was present in Addis Ababa for the July 1-5, conference that established a transitional government in Ethiopia. The EPLF attended the July conference as an observer and held talks with the new transitional government regarding Eritrea's relationship to Ethiopia. The outcome of those talks was an agreement in which the Ethiopians recognized the right of the Eritreans to hold a referendum on independence.

Although some EPLF cadres at one time espoused a Marxist ideology, Soviet assistance for Mengistu limited the level of Eritrean interest in seeking Soviet support. The fall of communist regimes in the former Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc convinced them it was a failed system. The EPLF (and later its successor, the PFDJ) expressed its commitment to establishing a democratic form of government and a free-market economy in Eritrea. The United States agreed to provide assistance to both Ethiopia and Eritrea, conditional on continued progress toward democracy and human rights.

On May 19, the PGE issued a proclamation regarding the reorganization of the government.

On April 23-25, Eritreans voted overwhelmingly for independence from Ethiopia in a UN-monitored free and fair referendum. The Eritrean authorities declared Eritrea an independent state on April 27, and Eritrea officially celebrated its independence on May 24, 1993.

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• ethnic Tigrinya 50%, Tigre and Kunama 40%, Afar 4%, Saho ( Red Sea coast dwellers) 3%, other 3%

• adult prevalence rate: 2.7% (2003 est.) (Compare to other countries)
• people living with HIV/AIDS: 60,000 (2003 est.) (Compare to other countries)

• total: 74.87 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 82.28 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 67.24 deaths/1,000 live births (2005 est.)
• (Compare to other countries)

• Afar, Arabic, Tigre and Kunama, Tigrinya, other Cushitic languages

• total population: 52.16 years
  male: 51.14 years
  female: 53.22 years (2005 est.)
• (Compare to other countries)

• total population: 58.6%
  male: 69.9%
  female: 47.6% (2003 est.)

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• noun: Eritrean(s)
  adjective: Eritrean

• 4,561,599 (July 2005 est.)
• (Compare to other countries)

• 2.51% (2005 est.)

• Muslim, Coptic Christian, Roman Catholic, Protestant

School enrollment
(% relevant age group) From UNESCO.

• Net primary enrollment: 39.1% (2000)
• Net secondary enrollment: 20.8% (2000)

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• 5.61 children born/woman (2005 est.)
• (Compare to other countries)

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Fixed lines
& mobile telephones
(per 1,000 people)
(From ITU)

• 8.4 m (2000)
• NA (2003)

• +291

• .er

• 9,500 (2003)
• (Compare to other countries)

Press

• Eritrea Profile
• Hadas Eritrea
• Geled
• Tirigta

TV

• Eri TV

Radio

• Radio Zara
• Voice of the Broad Masses of Eritrea (Dimtsi Hafash)

• 1.7 (2000)
• 2.9 (2003)

• .0 (2000)
• NA (2003)

• 38,100 (2003)
• (Compare to other countries)

• NA
• (Compare to other countries)

• UTC/GMT +3 hours
• Find the local time: Time and Date

• sorghum, lentils, vegetables, corn, cotton, tobacco, coffee, sisal; livestock, goats; fish

• nakfa (ERN)
• Currency converter

• nakfa (ERN) per US dollar - 13.788 (2004), 13.878 (2003), 13.958 (2002), 11.31 (2001), 9.625 (2000)

• livestock, sorghum, textiles, food, small manufactures (2000)

• Malaysia 54.7%, Italy 8.8%, France 3.7% (2004)

• calendar year

• purchasing power parity parity - $4.154 billion (2004 est.)
• (Compare to other countries)

• 2.5% (2004 est.)
• (Compare to other countries)

• machinery, petroleum products, food, manufactured goods (2000)

• US 32.3%, Italy 15.5%, Turkey 5.5%, UK 4.6%, Russia 4.4%, Italy 6.4% (2004)

• food processing, beverages, clothing and textiles, salt, cement, commercial ship repair

• 10% (2004 est.)
• (Compare to other countries)

• 50% (2004 est.)

• NA (2003 est.)
• (Compare to other countries)

• Adulis
• Asmara
• Keren
• Massawa Island
• Qohaito ruins

• 80,000 (2003)

• All travlers require a visa

• None

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• Eritrea Profile
• Hadas Eritrea
• Geled
• Tirigta