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Eritrea

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: African Countries;
Countries

                      Hagere Ertra
   ሃገረ ኤርትራ
   دولة إرتريا
   State of Eritrea

   Flag of Eritrea Coat of arms of Eritrea
   Flag            Coat of arms
   Anthem: Ertra, Ertra, Ertra
   Location of Eritrea
   Capital
   (and largest city)    Asmara
                         15°20′N 38°55′E
    Official languages   none^1
   Government            Transitional government
    - President          Isaias Afewerki
       Independence      from Ethiopia
    - De facto           May 29, 1991
    - De jure            May 24, 1993
                          Area
    - Total              117,600 km² ( 100th)
                         45,405 sq mi
    - Water (%)          negligible
                       Population
    - July 2005 estimate 4,401,000 ( 118th)
    - 2002 census        4,298,269
    - Density            37/km² ( 165th)
                         96/sq mi
        GDP ( PPP)       2005 estimate
    - Total              $3.977 billion ( 156th)
    - Per capita         $858 ( 172nd)
        HDI  (2005)      0.454 (low) ( 157th)
         Currency        Nakfa ( ERN)
         Time zone       EAT ( UTC+3)
    - Summer ( DST)      not observed ( UTC+3)
       Internet TLD      .er
       Calling code      +291
   ^1 Working languages: Tigrinya, Arabic and English

   Eritrea ( Ge'ez ኤርትራ ʾĒrtrā) is a country in northern East Africa
   bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in
   the southeast. The east and northeast of the country have an extensive
   coastline on the Red Sea, directly across from Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
   The Dahlak Archipelago and several of the Hanish Islands are part of
   Eritrea.

   Eritrea was consolidated into a colony by the Italian government on
   January 1, 1890. The modern state of Eritrea gained its independence
   from Ethiopia following a thirty year war which lasted from 1961 to
   1991. Eritrea's constitution adopted in 1997 stipulates that the state
   is a presidential republic with a unicameral parliamentary democracy.
   But the constitution was never ratified and since the outbreak of
   hostilities with Ethiopia in May of 1998, the country is under a
   de-facto (undeclared) state of emegency ruled by presidential decree.

   Eritrea is a multilingual and multicultural country with two dominant
   religions and nine ethnic groups. The country has no official language,
   but it has three working languages: Tigrinya, Arabic, and English.

History

   The first detailed written source of the territory currently known as
   Eritrea is the chronicled expedition launched by the Ancient Egyptian
   Pharao Hatshepsut to the fabled Punt (or "Ta Netjeru," meaning land of
   the Gods) in the 15th century BC in search of incense. Although, the
   oldest Egyptian expedition to Punt was made already in the 25th century
   BC under Pharao Suhure. The geographical description of the missions to
   Punt roughly correspond to the southern west coast of the Red Sea.

   The modern name Eritrea was first employed by the Italian colonialists
   in the late 19th century. It is the Italian form of the Greek name
   ΕΡΥΘΡΑΙΑ (Erythraîa; see also List of traditional Greek place names),
   which derives from the Greek term for the Red Sea (Ἐρυθρὰ Θάλασσα).

Pre History

   In 1998 the cranium of a hominid, an intermediate between a Homo
   erectus and an archaic Homo Sapien, was found in Buya, Eritrea by
   American scientists. The cranium was dated to over 1 million years old
   (the oldest of its kind), providing a link between hominids and the
   earliest humans. Furthermore, the Eritrean Research Project Team,
   composed of Eritrean, Canadian, American, Dutch, and French scientists,
   discovered in 1999 a site with stone and obsidian tools dated to over
   125 000 years old (from the paleolithic era) near the Bay of Zula south
   of Massawa along the Red Sea coast. The tools are believed to have been
   used by early humans to harvest marine resources like clams and
   oysters. Epipaleolithic or mesolithic remains in the form of cave
   paintings in central and northern Eritrea attest to the early
   settlement of hunter-gatherers in this region.

   A US paleontologist says that the fossil of a pig-sized creature found
   in East Africa represents the missing link between ancient and modern
   elephants. The dating of the new fossil, discovered in Eritrea, to 27
   million years ago also pushes the origins of elephants and mastodons 5
   million years further into the past than previous records, University
   of Michigan paleontologist William Sanders said.

   The findings by an international team that included Sanders suggest
   that mastodons and the ancestors of modern elephants originated in
   Africa, in contrast to mammals such as rhinos that had their origins in
   Europe and Asia and migrated into Africa. "In age and anatomy the newly
   discovered fossil is exactly the sort of intermediate evolutionists
   would expect to bridge the gap between archaic and advanced
   proboscideans," Sanders said.

   In addition to Sanders, the research team included scientists from the
   University of Asmara in Eritrea; Franklin and Marshall College in
   Lancaster, PA, USA; the Eritrean ministry of mines and energy; Global
   Resources in Asmara, Eritrea; the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle
   in Paris; the Elephant Research Foundation; the National Museum of
   Eritrea; and Deutsches Primatenzentrum in Gottingen, Germany.

Early History

   The earliest evidence of agricultural settlement, urbanism, trade and
   agriculture is found in the region inhabited by people dating back to
   3500 to 2500 BC in the archaeological sites called the Gash group.
   Based on the archaeological evidence, there seems to have been a
   connection between the peoples of the Gash group and the civilizations
   of the Nile Valley namely Ancient Egypt and Nubia. Ancient Egyptian
   sources also give references to cities and trading posts along the
   southwestern Red Sea coast, roughly corresponding to modern day
   Eritrea, calling this the land of Punt famed for its incense. An
   expedition to this very land was launched by the female pharao
   Hatshepsut from the 15th century BC and was chronicled in detail.

   In the highlands, in one of the capital city Asmara's suburbs Sembel at
   the mouth of the river Anseba, another site was found from the 9th
   century BC of another agricultural and urban settlement which traded
   both with the Sabeans across the Red Sea and with the civilizations of
   the Nile Valley further west along caravan routes that followed the
   Anseba River. Around this time, several cities with a high amount of
   Sabean remains (inscriptions, artifacts, monuments, architecture etc)
   seem to emerge in the central highlands and along the central coast
   including one called Saba. Some are undoubtedly built on top of older
   sites.
   1913 sketch by the Deutsche Aksum-Expedition of Hawulti, a pre-Aksumite
   or early Aksumite stela at Matara.
   Enlarge
   1913 sketch by the Deutsche Aksum-Expedition of Hawulti, a pre-Aksumite
   or early Aksumite stela at Matara.

   Around the 8th century BC, a kingdom known as D'mt was established in
   what is today northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, with its capital at Yeha
   in northern Ethiopia and which had extensive relations with the Sabeans
   in present day Yemen across the Red Sea. After D`mt's decline around
   the 5th century BC, the state of Aksum arose in the northern Abyssinian
   plateau. It grew during the 4th century BC and came into prominence
   during the first century AD, minting its own coins by the 3rd century,
   converting in the 4th century to Christianity, as the second official
   Christian state (after Armenia) and the first country to feature the
   cross on its coins. According to Mani, it grew to be one of the four
   greatest civilizations in the world, on a par with China, Persia, and
   Rome. In the 7th century AD; with the advent of Islam across the Red
   Sea in Arabia, Aksum's trade and power on the Red Sea began to decline
   and the centre moved farther inland to the Ethiopian highlands of what
   is today Ethiopia and the state was eventually defeated by Islamic as
   well as other internal forces circa 850 or 950 AD

Medieval History

   During the medieval period, the area which we now call Eritrea was the
   site of several states as well as tribal and clan lands. Between the
   8th and 13th century, northern and western Eritrea had largely come
   under the domination of the Beja, an Islamic, Cushitic people from
   northeastern Sudan. They formed five independent kingdoms known as:
   Naqis, Baqlin, Bazin, Jarin and Qata. The Beja brought Islam to large
   parts of Eritrea and connected the region to the greater Islamic world
   dominated by the Ummayad Caliphate, followed by the Abbasid (and
   Mamluk) and later the Ottoman Empire. The Ummayads were already in
   direct possession of small stretches of the Eritrean coastline and the
   Dahlak archipelago by the 8th century. The Beja imposed themselves as
   rulers but did not impose their cushitic language or culture on their
   subjects but rather adopted the local Ge'ez based language. This
   language evolved over time into the Tigre language which to this day is
   the lingua franca of the predominantly Muslim lowlands and northern
   coast of Eritrea. Later, in the 15th and 16th centuries, nothern
   Eritrea and its coastline were taken over completely by the Ottomans
   who were to remain there for over 300 years and govern it from the port
   of Massawa. Meanwhile, the central highlands and adjacent coastline
   became the site of a Christian Kingdom called Midre Bahri or Midre Bahr
   meaning sea-land in Tigrinya and Tigre respectively, and ruled by the
   Bahr Negash or Bahr negus (meaning king of the sea) that was loosely
   affiliated with the Abyssinian kingdoms of the south (but at times also
   became involved in conflict with them in alliance with the Ottomans).
   The domain of the kingdom was for most of its history restricted to
   north of the perennial river Mareb and which still serves as a natural
   boundary between Eritrea and Ethiopia today. The other Abyssinian
   kingdoms south of the river therefor commonly referred to Midre Bahri
   as Mareb Mellash meaning 'beyond Mareb' (in the Amharic language of the
   Amhara who had come to dominate Abyssinia since the 13th century). The
   feudal authority of the Bahr Negash later waned and was replaced by a
   Republic known as Hamasien, which was based on a land-owning peasantry
   (citizenry) in the central highlands who ruled by elders councils or
   shimagile and maintained it's entire young and able male population as
   a standing army. The southern coastline meanwhile was populated by the
   Afar and Saho speaking Islamic chiefdoms or clan lands which by the
   16th century had evolved into the centralized Adal sultanate (along
   with territories currently in eastern Ethiopia, Djibouti and Northern
   Somalia).

   An Ottoman invading force under Suleiman I conquered Massawa in 1577,
   building what is now considered the 'old town' of Massawa on Batsi
   island. They also conquered the towns of Hergigo, and Debarwa, the
   capital city of the contemporary Bahr negus (ruler), Yeshaq. Suleiman's
   forces fought as far south as southeastern Tigray before being
   repulsed. Yeshaq was able to retake much of what the Ottomans captured
   with Abyssinian (Ethiopian) assistance, but he later twice revolted
   against the Emperor of Abyssinia with Ottoman support in an attempt to
   take the Abyssinian throne. By 1578, all revolts had ended, leaving the
   Ottomans in control of the important ports of Massawa and Hergigo and
   their environs, and leaving the province of Habesh to Beja Na'ibs
   (deputies). The Ottomans maintained their dominion over the northern
   coastal areas for nearly 300 years. Their possessions were left to
   their Egyptian heirs in 1865 and were taken over by the Italians in
   1885.

Colonial era

   Members of the EPLF 2nd from bottom left, the current president of
   Eritrea, Isaias Afwerki.
   Enlarge
   Members of the EPLF 2nd from bottom left, the current president of
   Eritrea, Isaias Afwerki.

   An Italian Roman Catholic missionary and explorer by the name of
   Giuseppe Sapetto purchased the port of Assab from the Afar Sultanate on
   behalf of a Genovese (Italian) Shipping Company called Rubattino in
   1869. This happened in the same year as the opening of the Suez Canal.
   In the ongoing Scramble for Africa, Italy as one of the European
   colonial powers began vying for a possession along the strategic coast
   of what was to become the world's busiest shipping lane. With the
   approval of the Italian parliament and King Umberto I of Italy (later
   succeeded by his son Victor Emmanuel III), the government of Italy
   bought the Rubattino Company's holdings and expanded its possessions
   northwards along the Red Sea coast towards and beyond Massawa,
   encroaching on and quickly expelling previously 'Egyptian' possessions.
   The Italians met with stiffer resistance in the Eritrean highlands from
   the army of the Abyssinian Emperor Yohannes IV that also wanted a piece
   of these lands and an outlet to the sea. Nevertheless the Italians
   repulsed both Egyptians and Abyssinians and consolidated their
   possessions into one colony, henceforth known as Eritrea, territory of
   Italy as of New Years Day of 1890.

   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 conducted a
   lengthy inquiry, including a faulty referendum in which only the male
   "elders" (shimagile) of the Eritrean communities participated, in order
   to find out the wishes of the Eritrean people. During this time, those
   under Imperial Ethiopia's influence (who wanted unity with Ethiopia)
   and those who wanted Eritrea's independence, lobbied the great powers
   and the U.N. extensively. Imperial Ethiopia itself meddled immensely in
   the process, through bribing certain influential officials,
   intimidating others and most importantly by attempting to sow discord
   between Eritrean Muslims and Christians through its primary instrument:
   the Orthodox Church, which was used to herald Ethiopia as a bastion of
   Christianity, a haven and motherland of Christians and to spread a fear
   among Eritrean Christians that an independent Eritrea would inevitably
   succumb to Islamic rule. Moreover voting church members who did not
   vote for unity with Ethiopia as well as clergy who did not comply with
   the mission of the church were excommunicated or threatened with such
   by the Orthodox Church. The superpowers were also involved in a wrestle
   for a stake in the Eritrean question. The communist bloc along with
   most non-aligned independent third world countries favored Eritrean
   independence. The western powers Britain, France and the United States
   on the other hand already had Imperial Ethiopia as a close ally in line
   with western interests in the region and favored Eritrea being united
   with Ethiopia, rather than risk an independent Eritrea becoming a
   communist anti-western state. John Foster Dulles, the secretary of
   state of the United States at the time uttered the famous words:

   "From the point of view of justice, the opinions of the Eritrean people
   must receive consideration. Nevertheless, the strategic interests of
   the United States in the Red Sea Basin and considerations of security
   and world peace make it necessary that the country (Eritrea) has to be
   linked with our ally, Ethiopia", John Foster Dulles in 1952.

   Eventually a compromise was reached under which the former Italian
   colony was to be federated with Ethiopia. Eritrea would have its own
   parliament and administration, and would be represented in what had
   been the Ethiopian parliament and was now the federal parliament. The
   Emperor of Ethiopia predictably dissolved all semblance of the
   Federation by shutting down the parliament and declaring Eritrea the
   14th province of Ethiopia in 1961. This led to the 30 year long
   Eritrean Struggle for Independence.

Struggle for independence

   The sandals worn by the fighters of Independence have become iconic.
   This monument in Asmara was erected in memoriam.
   Enlarge
   The sandals worn by the fighters of Independence have become iconic.
   This monument in Asmara was erected in memoriam.

   Eritreans formed the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) and rebelled. The
   rebel movement was initially dominated by the ELF but became rivaled by
   the Eritrean People's Liberation Front in the 1970s. The ELF was a
   conservative grass roots movement dominated by Muslim lowlanders, and
   thus received backing from Arab governments, whereas the EPLF professed
   Marxism and was supported by a growing Eritrean Diaspora. The ELF was
   eventually overshadowed and eliminated by the EPLF. The struggle for
   independence neared victory in the mid-1970s but suffered reverses when
   the Derg, a Marxist military junta, came to power in Ethiopia with
   backing from the Soviet Union and other countries. Nevertheless,
   Eritrean resistance continued and the numbers of the EPLF swelled as
   did that of Ethiopian resistance movements with which the EPLF struck
   alliances to overthrow the communist Ethiopian regime.

Independent era

   Map of Eritrea.
   Enlarge
   Map of Eritrea.

   The struggle for independence ended in 1991, when the EPLF expelled the
   Ethiopian Army from Eritrea and had also joined forces with Ethiopian
   resistance movements to overthrow the Derg regime which fell the same
   year. Two years later, a referendum was held supervised by the UN
   mission UNOVER, with universal suffrage and conducted both in and
   outside Eritrea (among Eritrean communities in the diaspora), on
   whether Eritreans wanted independence or unity with Ethiopia. Over 99%
   of the Eritrean people voted for independence which was declared on May
   24 1993. The leader of the EPLF, Isaias Afewerki, became Eritrea's
   first Provisional President, and the Eritrean People's Liberation Front
   (later renamed the People's Front for Democracy and Justice, or PFDJ)
   created a government.

   In 1998, a border war with Ethiopia over the town of Badme resulted in
   the deaths of thousands of Eritrean soldiers (19,000, according to the
   government; 20-50,000 by some estimates), massive population
   displacement, reduced economic development, and a severe land mine
   problem. During and after the war, the Ethiopian Government expelled
   Eritreans and those of Eritrean heritage from Ethiopia after
   confiscating their wealth and properties. The Eritrean-Ethiopian War
   ended in 2000 with a negotiated agreement known as the Algiers
   Agreement, which assigned an independent, UN-associated boundary
   commission known as the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC),
   whose task was to clearly identify the border between the two
   countries. The EEBC issued a final border ruling in April 2002 and
   awarded Badme to Eritrea. However, Ethiopia has not withdrawn all its
   troops from the town, which has led to fears for another war.

Administrative divisions

   Regions of Eritrea
   Enlarge
   Regions of Eritrea

   Eritrea is divided into 6 regions (or zobas) and subdivided into
   approximately 55 districts or sub-zobas. The geographical extent of the
   regions is based on their respective hydrological properties. This is
   due to a dual intent on the part of the Eritrean government, to provide
   each administration with sufficient control over its agricultural
   capacity and eliminate historical intra-regional conflicts.

   The regions are included followed by the sub-region:
   Map location Region (ዞባ) Sub-region (ንኡስ ዞባ)
   1 Central
   (ዞባ ማእከል)
   (المنطقة المركزية) Berikh, Ghala Nefhi, North Eastern, Serejaka, South
   Eastern, South Western
   2 Southern
   (ዞባ ደቡብ)
   (المنطقة الجنوبية) Adi Keyh, Adi Quala, Areza, Debarwa, Dekemhare, Kudo
   Be'ur, Mai-Mne, Mendefera, Segeneiti, Senafe, Tserona
   3 Gash-Barka
   (ዞባ ጋሽ ባርካ)
   (منطقة القاش وبركا) Agordat, Barentu, Dghe, Forto, Gogne, Haykota, Logo
   Anseba, Mensura, Mogolo, Molki, Omhajer (Guluj), Shambuko, Tesseney,
   Upper Gash
   4 Anseba
   (ዞባ ዓንሰባ)
   (منطقة عنسبا) Adi Tekelezan, Asmat, Elabered, Geleb, Hagaz, Halhal,
   Habero, Keren City, Kerkebet, Sela
   5 Northern Red Sea
   (ዞባ ሰሜናዊ ቀይሕ ባሕሪ)
   (منطقة البحر الأحمر الشمال) Afabet, Dahlak, Ghelalo, Foro, Ghinda,
   Karura, Massawa, Nakfa, She'eb
   6 Southern Red Sea
   (ዞባ ደቡባዊ ቀይሕ ባሕሪ)
   (منطقة البحر الأحمر الجنوب) Are'eta, Central Dankalia, Southern
   Dankalia

Politics and government

   The National Assembly of 150 seats, formed in 1993 shortly after
   independence, elected the current president, Isaias Afewerki. National
   elections have been periodically scheduled and canceled. Independent
   local sources of political information on Eritrean domestic politics
   are scarce; in September 2001 the government closed down all of the
   nation's privately owned print media, and outspoken critics of the
   government have been arrested and held without trial, according to
   various international observers, including Human Rights Watch and
   Amnesty International. In 2004 the U.S. State Department declared
   Eritrea a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for its alleged record of
   religious persecution (see below).

National elections

   Eritrean National elections were set for 1997 and then postponed until
   2001, it was then decided that because 20% of Eritrea's land was under
   occupation that elections would be postponed until the resolution of
   the conflict with Ethiopia. However, local elections have continued in
   Eritrea. The most recent round of local government elections were held
   in May 2003. On further elections, the President's Chief of Staff,
   Yemane Ghebremeskel said,


   Eritrea

   The electoral commission is handling these elections this time round so
   that may be the new element in this process. The national assembly has
     also mandated the electoral commission to set the date for national
     elections, so whenever the electoral commission sets the date there
    will be national elections. It's not dependent on regional elections,
               although that might be a very helpful process.

     Multipartyism, in general principle yes, it is there but the law on
    political parties has to be approved by the national assembly. It was
    not approved the last time. The view from the beginning was that you
   don't necessarily need a party law to hold national elections. You can
    have national elections and the party law can be adopted at any time.
    So in terms of commitment it's very clear, in terms of the process it
                 has its own pace, its own characteristics.


   Eritrea

Foreign relations

   Eritrea is a member in good standing of the African Union (AU), the
   successor of the Organization of African Unity (OAU). But it has
   withdrawn its representative to the AU in protest of the AU's lack of
   leadership in facilitating the implementation of a binding border
   decision demarcating the border between Eritrea and Ethiopia. Eritrea's
   relationship with the United States is complicated. Although the two
   nations have a close working relationship regarding the on-going war on
   terror, there has been a growing tension in other areas. Eritrea's
   relationship with Italy and the EU has become equally strained in many
   areas in the last three years.

   Within the region, Eritrea's relations with Ethiopia turned from that
   of close alliance to a deadly rivalry that lead to a war from May, 1998
   to June 2000 in which 19,000 Eritreans were killed.

   External issues include an undemarcated border with Sudan, a war with
   Yemen over the Hanish Islands in 1996, and a recent border conflict
   with Ethiopia.

   The undemarcated border with Sudan poses a problem for Eritrean
   external relations. After a high-level delegation to Sudan from the
   Eritrean Ministry of Foreign Affairs ties are being normalized. While
   normalization of ties continues, Eritrea has been recognized as a
   broker for peace between the separate factions of the Sudanese civil
   war. "It is known that Eritrea played a role in bringing about the
   peace agreement [between the Southern Sudanese and Government]," while
   the Sudanese Government and Eastern Front rebels have requested Eritrea
   to mediate peace talks.

   A dispute with Yemen over the Hanish Islands in 1996 resulted in a
   brief war. As part of an agreement to cease hostilities the two nations
   agreed to refer the issue to the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the
   Hague. At the conclusion of the proceedings, both nations acquiesced to
   the decision. Since 1996 both governments have remained wary of one
   another but relations are relatively normal.

   The undemarcated border with Ethiopia is the primary external issue
   facing Eritrea. This led to a long and bloody border war between 1998
   and 2000. As a result, the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and
   Eritrea ( UNMEE) is occupying a 25 kilometres by 900 kilometres area on
   the border to help stabilize the region. Disagreements following the
   war have resulted in stalemate punctuated by periods of elevated
   tension and renewed threats of war. Central to the continuation of the
   stalemate is Ethiopia's failure to abide by the border delimitation
   ruling and reneging on its commitment to demarcation. The stalemate has
   led the President of Eritrea to urge the UN to take action on Ethiopia.
   This request is outlined in the Eleven Letters penned by the President
   to the United Nations Security Council. The situation is further
   escalated by the continued effort of the Eritrean and Ethiopian leaders
   in supporting each other's opposition.

Geography

   Satellite image of Eritrea, generated from raster graphics data
   supplied by The Map Library
   Enlarge
   Satellite image of Eritrea, generated from raster graphics data
   supplied by The Map Library
   A view from the Keren-Asmara Highway
   Enlarge
   A view from the Keren-Asmara Highway

   Eritrea is located in East Africa, more specifically 'Horn of Africa'
   and is bordered on the northeast and east by the Red Sea. The country
   is virtually bisected by one of the world's longest mountain ranges,
   the Great Rift Valley, with fertile lands to the west and the descent
   to desert in the East. Off the sandy and arid coastline is situated the
   Dahlak Archipelago and its fishing grounds. The land to the south, in
   the highlands, is slightly less dry and cooler. Eritrea at the southern
   end of the Red Sea is the home of the fork in the rift.

   The Afar Triangle or Danakil Depression of Eritrea is the probable
   location of a triple junction where three tectonic plates are pulling
   away from one another: the Arabian Plate, and the two parts of the
   African Plate (the Nubian and the Somalian) splitting along the East
   African Rift Zone (USGS). The highest point of the country, Amba Soira,
   is located in the centre of Eritrea, at 3,018 metres (9,902 ft) above
   sea level.

   The main cities of the country are the capital city of Asmara and the
   port town of Assab in the southeast, as well as the towns of Massawa to
   the east, and Keren to the north.

Economy

   Since independence from Ethiopia, Eritrea has faced economic problems
   characteristic of a small, poor country. Like the economies of many
   other African nations, the economy is largely based on subsistence
   agriculture, with 80% of the population involved in farming and
   herding. Natural disasters regularly created hardships for Eritrean
   agriculture. The most devastating of these are locust plagues, African
   armyworm plagues and drought .

   The Eritrean-Ethiopian War severely hurt Eritrea's economy. GDP growth
   in 1999 fell to less than 1%, and GDP decreased by 8.2% in 2000. The
   May 2000 Ethiopian offensive into southern Eritrea caused some $600
   million in property damage and loss, including losses of $225 million
   in livestock and 55,000 homes. The attack prevented planting of crops
   in Eritrea's most productive region, causing food production to drop by
   over 60%.

   Even during the war, Eritrea developed its transportation
   infrastructure, asphalting new roads, improving its ports, and
   repairing war-damaged roads and bridges as a part of the Warsay
   Yika'alo Program. The most remarkable of these projects has been the
   building of a coastal highway of more than 500 Kms connecting Massawa
   with Assab as well as the rehabilitation of the Eritrean Railway. The
   rail line now runs between the Port of Massawa and the capital Asmara.
   This feat of re-engineering was accomplished by local labor and
   ingenuity.

   Eritrea's economic future remains mixed. The cessation of Ethiopian
   trade, which mainly used Eritrean ports before the war, leaves Eritrea
   with a large economic hole to fill. Eritrea's economic future depends
   upon its ability to master fundamental social problems like illiteracy,
   unemployment, and low skills, as well as the willingness to open its
   economy further to private enterprise so that the Diaspora's money and
   expertise can foster economic growth.

Society

Demographics

   A map indicating the ethnic composition of Eritrea
   Enlarge
   A map indicating the ethnic composition of Eritrea

   Eritrean society is ethnically heterogeneous. The largest ethnic group
   are the Tigrinya who compose up to 50% of the population, while the
   Tigre people make up another 31.4%. The rest of the population is
   comprised of the smaller populations of the Saho, Nara, Hedareb, Beja,
   Afar, Bilen, Kunama, and the Rashaida. Each nationality speaks a
   different native tongue, but typically, many of the minorities speak
   more than one language. The Jebertis are Muslim Tigrinyas who consider
   themselves a separate ethnicity, however, in Eritrea ethnicity is
   determined by language and so they are not officially recognized as
   separate from the Tigrinya.

   There exist minorities of Italians and Ethiopian Tigrayans. Neither is
   generally given citizenship unless through marriage or having it
   conferred upon them by the State.

   The most recent addition to the nationalities of Eritrea is the
   Rashaida. The Rashaida came to Eritrea in the 19th century from the
   Arabian Coast. The Rashaida do not typically intermarry, are typically
   nomadic, and number approximately 61,000, less than 1% of the
   population.

   The Kunama are one of the earliest settled peoples in Eritrea. They
   adopted rain-fed agriculture and settled into communal villages in the
   'lowlands' of Eritrea.

   Between 900 and 500 BC Eritrea experienced massive migrations and
   cultural contacts from Saba in Southern Arabia. The Sabean area in
   Eritrea is mainly to be found in the Kebessa highlands surrounding the
   capital Asmara and extending southwards. There the Sabeans found the
   same geographical conditions as in their native Saba, suitable to
   terracing and their pre-existing agricultural modes of production.

Languages

   Rashaida children in the Eritrean lowlands
   Enlarge
   Rashaida children in the Eritrean lowlands

   Many languages are spoken in Eritrea today. The two language families
   that most of the languages stem from are the Semitic and Cushitic
   families. The Semitic languages in Eritrea are Arabic (spoken natively
   by the Rashaida Arabs), Tigrinya, Tigre, and the newly recognized
   Dahlik; these languages (primarily Tigrinya and Tigre) are spoken as a
   first language by over 80% of the population. The Cushitic languages in
   Eritrea are just as numerous, including Afar, Beja, Blin, and Saho.
   Kunama and Nara are also spoken in Eritrea and belong to the
   Nilo-Saharan language family. English and Amharic are spoken to a
   degree by more educated Eritreans, and there are still some speakers of
   Italian leftover from colonial times.

   The local Tigrinya and the wider Arabic language are the two
   predominant languages for official purposes, but a few Italian speakers
   can still be found. Along with Arabic (spoken natively only by the
   Rashaida), English is the most widely spoken non-African language.

Education

   There are five levels of education in Eritrea, pre-primary, primary,
   middle, secondary and post-secondary. There are nearly 238,000 students
   in the primary, middle, and secondary levels of education. There are
   approximately 824 schools in Eritrea and two Universities (University
   of Asmara and the Institute of Science and Technology) as well as
   several smaller colleges and technical schools.

   One of the most important goals of Eritrea's educational policy is to
   provide basic education in each of Eritrea's mother tongues, as well as
   to develop a self-motivated and conscientious population to fight
   poverty and disease. Furthermore it is tooled to produce a society that
   is equipped with the necessary skills to function with a culture of
   self-reliance in the modern economy.

   The education system in Eritrea is also designed to promote private
   sector schooling, equal access for all groups (i.e., prevent gender
   discrimination, prevent ethnic discrimination, prevent class
   discrimination, etc.) and promote continuing education, both formally
   and informally.

   Barriers to education in Eritrea include traditional taboos, school
   fees (for registration and materials), and the opportunity costs of
   low-income households.

Religion

   Enda Mariam Orthodox Church, Roman Catholic Cathedral, Al Khulafa Al
   Rashiudin Mosque (in the foreground, rear left, and rear right
   respectively) in the capital Asmara.
   Enlarge
   Enda Mariam Orthodox Church, Roman Catholic Cathedral, Al Khulafa Al
   Rashiudin Mosque (in the foreground, rear left, and rear right
   respectively) in the capital Asmara.

   Eritrea has two dominant religions, Christianity and Islam, which each
   account for roughly half the population. The Christians consist
   primarily of the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahdo Church, which is the local
   Oriental Orthodox church, but small groups of Roman Catholics,
   Protestants, and other denominations also exist, while the Muslims
   predominantly follow Sunni Islam.

   Members of the Eritrean Orthodox Church are sometimes described as
   Coptic Christians because it was formerly part of the Ethiopian
   Orthodox Tewahedo Church, which was until 1959 subject to the Coptic
   Pope. However, the word Coptic in modern usage refers primarily to the
   Egyptian Orthodox branch of Christianity. The Eritrean and Ethiopian
   Orthodox churches are still in full communion with the Coptic Church in
   Egypt. The Eritrean Orthodox Church was granted autocephaly in 1993 by
   the Ethiopian Orthodox Church when Eritrea became independent, and, in
   1998 the Archbishop of Asmara, the capital, was elevated to the rank of
   patriarchate.

   Since May 2002, the government of Eritrea has only officially
   recognized the Eritrean Orthodox Church, Sunni Islam, Catholicism and
   the Evangelical Lutheran church. All other faiths and denominations
   were required to undergo a registration process that was so stringent
   as to effectively be prohibitive. Amongst other things, the
   government's registration system requires religious groups to submit
   personal information on their membership in order to be allowed to
   worship. The few organisations that have met all of the registration
   requirements have still not received official recognition. Other faith
   groups like Jehovah's Witnesses, Bahai's, the Seventh-day Adventist
   Church and numerous Protestant denominations are not registered and
   cannot worship freely. They have effectively been banned, and harsh
   measures have been taken against their adherents. Over twenty
   Protestant pastors and almost 2000 church members have so far been
   detained indefinitely and without charge. In addition several Orthodox
   priests have also been detained, and the Patriarch of the Orthodox
   Church has been replaced by the Eritrean Orthodox Synod and placed
   under stringent house arrest ostensibly for objecting to government
   interference in church affairs.

   There is also one last native Jew left in Eritrea, formerly from a
   community of hundreds in Asmara, whose ancestors had crossed from Aden
   in the late 19th century.

Geographic locale

   Flag of Saudi Arabia  Saudi Arabia
   Image:Template CanadianCityGeoLocation North.png
   Red Sea
   Flag of Sudan  Sudan North Red Sea  Image:Template
   CanadianCityGeoLocation East.png   Flag of Yemen  Yemen
   West    Flag of Eritrea  Eritrea     East
   South
   Flag of Ethiopia  Ethiopia Flag of Djibouti  Djibouti

   Countries of Africa

   Sovereign states: Algeria • Angola • Benin • Botswana • Burkina Faso •
   Burundi • Cameroon • Cape Verde • Central African Republic • Chad •
   Democratic Republic of the Congo • Republic of the Congo • Comoros •
   Côte d'Ivoire • Djibouti • Egypt ^1 • Equatorial Guinea • Eritrea •
   Ethiopia • France ^2 • Gabon • The Gambia • Ghana • Guinea-Bissau •
   Guinea • Kenya • Lesotho • Liberia • Libya • Madagascar • Malawi • Mali
   • Mauritania • Mauritius • Morocco • Mozambique • Namibia • Niger •
   Nigeria • Portugal ^2 • Rwanda • Senegal • Seychelles • Sierra Leone •
   Somalia • South Africa • Spain ^2 • Sudan • Swaziland • São Tomé and
   Príncipe • Tanzania • Togo • Tunisia • Uganda • Yemen ^3 • Zambia •
   Zimbabwe

   Dependencies: British Indian Ocean Territory (UK) • French Southern
   Territories (France) • Mayotte (France) • Réunion (France) • Saint
   Helena ^4 (UK)

   Unrecognized countries: Somaliland • Western Sahara •

   ^1  Partly in Asia. ^2  Mostly in Europe. ^3  Mostly in Asia.
   ^4 Includes the dependencies of Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha.
   Member states of the African Union

   Algeria • Angola • Benin • Botswana • Burkina Faso • Burundi •
   Cameroon • Cape Verde • Central African Republic • Chad • Comoros •
   Democratic Republic of the Congo • Republic of the Congo •
   Côte d'Ivoire • Djibouti • Egypt • Eritrea • Ethiopia •
   Equatorial Guinea • Gabon • The Gambia • Ghana • Guinea •
   Guinea-Bissau • Kenya • Lesotho • Liberia • Libya • Madagascar •
   Malawi • Mali • Mauritania • Mauritius • Mozambique • Namibia • Niger •
   Nigeria • Rwanda • São Tomé and Príncipe • Senegal • Seychelles •
   Sierra Leone • Somalia • South Africa • Sudan • Swaziland • Tanzania •
   Togo • Tunisia • Uganda • Western Sahara  (SADR) • Zambia • Zimbabwe
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eritrea"
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