Eritrea is in East Africa, bordering the Red Sea, between Djibouti and Sudan, with a long disputed border with Ethiopia.
Regions
Cities
Other destinations
Eritrea is a relatively small country (by African standards), about the same size as Pennsylvania or England, and has a varied and contrasting landscape due to its diverse topography as part of the geological feature of the Great Rift Valley which traverses all of Eastern Africa, the Red Sea and Middle East. The country's most interesting destinations are its natural attractions, beyond the towns and villages. There are six main topographical features in the country. The highlands in the center and south of Eritrea, the western lowlands, the Sahel in the north, the subtropical eastern escarpments, the northern coast and archipelago and the southern coast.
The highlands where the capital Asmara is situated lie between 1500 and 3500 meters above sea level and are blessed with a
temperate, mediterranean and dry climate, with little seasonal variation in temperature but where the rainy season falls between May and September and dry season between December and April. There is however considerable variation in temperature
between the different levels in altitude of the highlands. The landscape essentially consists of valleys, hills and vast expanses of flat plateaus interrupted by very dramatic chasms. The dry season from December to April is distinguished by the redbrown, rusty, beige or black (stone and rubble-colored) landscape, resembling photos from Mars. The vegetation consists largely of shrubbery, eucalyptus, aloes, cacti and the odd explosively colorful specs of bougainvillea, jacaranda or other adornments planted in the villages and towns. The rainy season brings torrents of rain and nourishment
to the land which transforms completely into a verdant, emerald and grassy landscape in the post-rain months of August to October. Rural highlanders live a lifestyle which resembles biblical times. Villages with stone houses, small plots, ancient
temples (both christian and muslim), people farming and herding with traditional means using little technology, transporting
their goods (as well as themselves) with mules and camels. A good place to explore the highland landcape is in the outskirts
of Asmara, the capital. Near the village of Tselot is the Martyrs National Park, inaugurated in 2000. It is a mountaineous forest and wildife preserve at the ridge of the highland plateau where the capital was built.
The western lowlands lie between 1500 and 100 meters above sea level, the climate is tropical with high humidity and heat throughout the day during the rainy season (which falls at the same time as the highlands) and dry hot days with cold nights
during the dry season. The landscape consists largely of plains, grassy, muddy and green during the rainy season and dry, dusty with sparse shrubbery during the dry season. The plains are interrupted by the odd hills and mounts as well as three seasonal rivers originating in the Eritrean highlands and one perennial river constituting the border with Ethiopia and originating in the Ethiopian highlands (the Setit, known as 'Tekeze' in Ethiopia and 'Atbara' in Sudan). All major towns in the lowlands are placed on or around these rivers. The southern half of the lowlands consists of a typical African savannah and hosts the odd flocks of wild African elephants and other typically savannah-type flora and fauna. The northern half of the lowlands is considered part of the Sahara desert and consists of vast expanses of sand dunes and rocks with a few sparsely populated oases. The best place to explore both aspects of the lowlands is the market town Tessenei by the Sudanese
border and its surroundings, as it lies right between the dry and green parts of the lowlands and is a place of trade for the nomadic peoples of the desert as well as the sedentary farming communities of the savannah. Tessenei affords some of the most basic of amenities for visitors such as hotels with showers and flush toilets, shops (including photoshops to buy film and bottled drinks) and restaurants serving well-cooked meals. It is accessible by asfalt road from the capital Asmara via Keren and the towns of Agordat and Barentu which takes about 10 hours. Buses run daily from Asmara. It can also be reached by dirt track from the Sudanese city of Kassala only 40 Kms away. Considering the border bureaucracy, this short distance however could prove to be a whole days endeavour.
The northern Sahel is a peripheral part of the Sahara desert distinguished by its sharp contrast with the sandy deserts of the western lowlands as well as the eastern coast. The Sahel consists of a towering narrow chain of mountains ranging from 1000 to 2500 meters above sea level aligned between the deserts to the east and west and continuing all the way to the north to Sudan and Egypt (a feature of the Great Rift Valley). The slopes to the east and west are sparsely populated by herding nomads. The rainy season in the western slopes falls in the same time as in the highlands and western lowlands and in the eastern slopes it conforms to the Red Sea's schedule of erratic precipitation between December and March. However, rainfall in this region is generally erratic and of a much lesser quantity than everywhere else. The climate is desert-like with little humidity, dry hot days and cold nights with little seasonal variation in temperatures. Variations in temperature
are seen however, between different altitudes. Heavy erosion due to war and previous overgrazing has also seriously impeded the benefits of two rainy seasons. The landscape is therefor very arid and fit for only the most tenacious of nomadic herding communities. The central and northern core consists of impenetratable and hair-raising mountain passes, gorges and valleys. This was the main base for the Eritrean rebels (who now make up the country's current government) when fighting for independence from Ethiopia. One seasonal river, Anseba, originating in the highlands, bisects the mountain range and drains in a delta on the Red Sea coast of Sudan just north of the Eritrean border. The best place to explore the Sahel is the town of Nakfa, the main base of the Eritrean resistance which gave the national currency its name. Nakfa also has a war-museum commemorating the liberation struggle and a comfortable yet modest government-run hotel with restaurant and sattelite
TV. It is accessible from Asmara via Keren on asfalt road and from Keren via the town of Afabet on a dirt road. This takes 10 to 12 hours as the road between Keren and Nakfa is aweful. Buses run to Nakfa from Keren starting early in the morning so a trip from Asmara would entai an overnights stay in Keren (which is served many times daily from Asmara). Afabet is accessible by asfalt road from the port of Massawa via the town of She'eb. The Massawa-Nakfa trip would take about 10 hours still as the unavoidable Afabet-Nakfa leg of the journey is the most taxing. Buses run once weekly from Massawa to Nakfa.
The subtropical eastern escarpment, consists basically of the eastern (seaward) slopes of the highland region. Unique for this thin sliver of landscape is that it hosts the country's only subtropical rainforest and one of the world's largest
selection of bird species, both seasonal (winter-migrants) and endemic (tropical). Being so mountainous, it has not been heavily settled (luckily) as it was seen as incovenient for farming. But nevertheless there are some small coffee and spice plantations in its central, higher altitude areas as well as tropical fruit plantations in the lower areas. The Solomouna National Park is the best place to explore this area and is accessible by asfalt road from the capital Asmara as well as the port of Massawa. The only way to the national park is by guided tour with one of Eritrea's tour agencies which all operate out of Asmara. Travelling to the coastal Massawa from highland Asmara one also passes through this region represented by the towns and villages between Nefasit (25 km from Asmara) and Dongollo Alto (50 Km from Asmara).
The northern coast and archipelago consists largely of a sandy redbrown and beige semi-desert with some shrubbery and volcanic basalt-rock along the mainland coast. The elevation is between 500 and 0 meters above sea level and the climate is always tropical and humid, reaching uncomfortable highs of 37 to 50 degrees in the summer months of May to September and to
breezy and warm "low's" of 25 to 35 degrees between October and March. Rainy season is an insignificant concept on the coast as it seldom rains at all, save for the freak storm that occurs on the odd year. Some minimal precipitation and cloudiness may occur in the months of November to March, but the coast relies mainly on the runoff from the highlands and
eastern escarpments for its water supply (from aquifers and table water). The few attractions inland are the hot springs resort about 35 Kms from the port city of Massawa, where hot mineral water baths are available and the water is also bottled as one of the country's most popular mineral water sources and brands (Dongollo, sold in brown glass bottles). The coast and archipelago host some of the Red Sea's most untouched coral reefs, rife with marine wildlife ranging from dugongs and manta's to big spools of tigerfish, dolphins and of course sharks. Eritrea's coast offers some of the best diving in the world but some of the most limited diving and tourist facilities, all of which are based in the port city of Massawa and are extremely expensive. The Beaches in and immediately surrounding the port city of Massawa as well as to the north are of modest to poor quality due to pollution as well as flooding and erosion from the nearby highlands. Parts of the northern coast also consists of large mangrove swamps, great for fishing and birdwatching but not for beachlife. The beaches on the Dahlak islands on the other hand are clean, white and pristine, with lagoons of clear turquoise water. The only way to get to the Dahlak islands is to charter a boat from a licensed company in Massawa. The biggest island Dahlak Kebir which features one modest resort-hotel is only 90 Kms away and so are some other smaller uninhabited islands like Dissei, which can make for affordable day-trips from Massawa but the archipelago extends much farther than that and offers much greater attractions. With Eritrea's limited facilities, the possibility of going on longer cruises and exploring more of the attractions is very expensive and narrowed down to a few European run companies based in Massawa. With the country's heightened sense of security, doing so independently on ones own boat or a chartered one is impossible. The best place to explore the northern coast and archipelago is obviously the port city of Massawa.
The southern coast is perhaps Eritrea's most dramatic yet most inhospitable landscape because of its volcanoes, quicksand, bubbling mudpools, salt lakes, coastal cliffs, the inland desert and depressions. The elevation ranges between peaks of over 2000 meters above sea level and depressions of more than 100 meters below sea level with fields of salt pans and strangely shaped rocks where temperatures reach the highest possible on our planet. The southern coast has the highest recorded temperatures in Eritrea which regularly reach 55 degrees celsius. Humidity maintains the temperatures high all throughout the day and seasonal variations are the same as in the northern coast. The northern inland areas of the southern coast offer a dramatic landscape of contrast between the backdrop of the towering mountains of the highlands to the west and the vast expanses of coastal desert to the east. It is the only area of considerable vegetation in the whole region, thanks to the highland rainfall and runoff. The area also hosts an interesting wildlife of mountain goats and ostriches. The region is situated between the port city's of Massawa and Assab which are about 500 Kms apart so is ideally accessed on a journey between the two cities. But can also consist of excursions from Massawa and/or Assab individually. Especially for
trips geared towards viewing the inland landscapes. Any journeys without guides to this region is off-limits due to the
high dangers associated with the climate as well as political volatility surrounding the Ethiopian border areas. The only
public transportation in the area consist of buses from Massawa to Assab and back which run a few times weekly. Assab is also served by Eritrean Airlines from Asmara a few times weekly as well.
Understand
Eritrea was awarded to Ethiopia in 1952 as part of a federation. Ethiopia's annexation of Eritrea as a province 10 years later sparked a 30-year struggle for independence that ended in 1991 with Eritrean rebels defeating governmental forces; independence was overwhelmingly approved in a 1993 referendum. A two-and-a-half-year border war with Ethiopia that erupted in 1998 ended under UN auspices in December 2000. Eritrea currently hosts a UN peacekeeping operation that is monitoring a 25 km-wide Temporary Security Zone on the border with Ethiopia. An international commission, organized to resolve the border dispute, posted its findings in 2002 but final demarcation is on hold due to Ethiopian objections.
Climate
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.
Landscape
At the head 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. Eritrea retained the entire coastline of Ethiopia along the Red Sea upon declaring independence from Ethiopia in 1993.
Get in
Only nationals of Uganda and Kenya and foreign citizens of Eritrean descent (holders of Eritrean ID cards) can enter Eritrea
without a visa. All others must apply for a visa in advance before entering the country. When you apply for a visa to Eritrea, you must do it at an Eritrean Embassy in - or ackredited to the country where you are a citizen and nowhere else. There are Eritrean Embassies in Europe: London, Paris, The Hague, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm and Moscow. America: Washington DC and Ottawa. Africa: Pretoria, Abuja, Nairobi, Kampala, Djibouti, Khartoum, Cairo and Tripoli. Asia and Oceania: Beijing and Canberra. Middle East: Riyadh, Sanaa, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Doha, Tel Aviv (Ramat Gan) and Damascus. If you live in or close to these cities and are a citizen there, you can walk in, submit an application, pay the fees and receive a tourist visa within the next day or three working days.
There are also consulates and missions in many other places ex. New York*, Oakland, Geneva, Athens, Milan, Frankfurt, Dubai, Jeddah and Kassala. But these will be only receiving applications and payments while communicating them on to the main embassy, the handling time may therefor be a few days longer than the walk-in service at an actual embassy. *The New York office will not receive any applications at all as they are a mission to the United Nations with no consular function.
If you don't have an Eritrean Embassy OR Consulate in your country (see list above) ask your country's foreign office (state department, ministry of foreign affairs) which Eritrean Embassy applies to your country and contact them for an application. The Embassies in London, Stockholm and USA as well as the mission to the UN in New York have websites where an application can be downloaded, saving you some time. For a tourist visa, you need to submit specific information about when and at what border post you will arrive and depart, so it is wise to have allready made some plans (bought a ticket or so).
By plane
Eritrea's only international airport at present is in the capital Asmara. Lufthansa is the most reliable airline flying 3 times a week into Asmara from Frankfurt. Eritrean Airlines flies twice weekly to/from Frankfurt, Dubai and Djibouti and once weekly to/from Rome and Jeddah. Egyptair serves Asmara twice weekly from Cairo. Yemenia Air fly twice weekly from Sanaa. Saudi Arabian Airlines fly twice weekly from Jeddah/Riyadh. There is a 20eur, 20$us airport fee payable upon departure.
By train
There is no international railway connection to Eritrea.
By car
You can enter Eritrea driving from Djibouti and Sudan (Kassala border crossing) provided you have a valid certificate of ownership of the vehicle you're driving (no rentals) and all your (including your passengers') passports and visas in order as well as a customs declaration (if necessary). The roads on the borders are very poor so you should be driving a 4WD. The first gas-station entering Eritrea from Djibouti is about 30 Km away from the border in Assab and about the same distance from the Sudanese border in Tessenei. Diesel is more easily available than petrol.
By bus
There are Sudanese pickup taxis running from Kassala in Sudan to the Eritrean border (a half hour away) and Eritrean taxis from the Eritrean border to Tessenei about an hour away (poor road). There are also Djiboutian taxis running from Obock in Djibouti to the border village of Moulhoule two hours away (very poor road) and this is where they're going even if they say 'Assab'. Eritrean taxis will take you from the Eritrean border to the port city of Assab, another hour away. You have to walk across the borders. No public transport crosses borders. The bureaucracy of the border crossings can take hours so start in the morning or early aftersoon from Kassala in Sudan or Obock in Djibouti as it is not possible to enter Eritrea after dusk (border post closes and there are no pickups there until the next morning and the nearest town is very far away).
By boat
Ports and harbors: Assab (Aseb), Massawa (Mits'iwa).
Sadaka Shipping Lines and Eritrean Shipping Lines service the route Massawa - Jeddah in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. They serve mainly muslim pilgrims and it is quite difficult for non-pilgrims to enter or transit the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Get around
You will need a permit from the tourist bureau on liberation avenue if you are consider traveling outside Asmara's city limits. This permit needs to be applied for 10 days before travel. There are very few places other than Asmara, Keren and Massawa/Dahlak Islands that foreigners can travel to.
Buy
Costs
Work
Don't plan on it. There are no jobs for local and the government forbids anyone that is not Eritrean from working. Embassies and the International School is the only place you will find foreigners working.
Stay safe
Watch out for bicycle riders and pedestrians. People don’t look when crossing and bike riding accidents are common. It is a safe city though and you can walk about at night and anywhere in the city and not worry about crime. There are sometimes children that aggressively beg but usually leave you alone if you are stern with them.
Stay healthy
Do not drink the water and even check bottled water to make sure the cap is sealed. Be very careful what you eat. Many people get sick here. There is a Jordanian UN hospital that will treat foreigners. Local hospitals have inadequate facilities. Be healthy if you come here.
Respect
The Eritrean people are wonderful and generous and strong.
Eritrea (Ge'ez: ) is a country situated in northern East Africa. It is 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 30-year war that lasted from 1961 to 1991. Eritrea's constitution, adopted in 1997, stipulates that the state is a presidential republic with a unicameral parliamentary democracy. The constitution, however, has not yet been implemented fully due to, according to the government, the prevailing border conflict with Ethiopia which began in May 1998.
Eritrea is a multilingual and multicultural country with two dominant religions (Sunni Islam and Oriental Orthodox Christianity) and nine ethnic groups. The country has no official language, but it has three working languages: Tigrinya, Arabic and English. Italian is also widely spoken amongst the older generations.
History
The oldest written reference to the territory now known as Eritrea is the chronicled expedition launched to the fabled Punt (or "Ta Netjeru," meaning land of the Gods) by the Ancient Egyptians in the twenty-fifth century BC under Pharaoh Sahure. Later sources from the Pharaoh Hatshepsut in the 15th century BC present a more detailed portrayal of an expedition in search of incense. The geographical location of the missions to Punt is described as roughly corresponding 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 Ερυθραία (Erythraîa; see also List of traditional Greek place names), which derives from the Greek term for the Red Sea ().
Pre-history
One of the oldest hominids representing a link between Homo erectus and an archaic Homo sapiens, was found in Buya (Eritrean Danakil) in 1995 by Italian scientists. The cranium was dated to over 1 million years old. Furthermore, the Eritrean Research Project Team, composed of Eritrean, Canadian, American, Dutch, and French scientists, discovered in 1999 some of the first examples of humans using tools to harvest marine resources at a site near the bay of Zula south of Massawa along the Red Sea coast. The site contained obsidian tools dated to over 125,000 years old, from the paleolithic era. 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, William Sanders of the University of Michigan also discovered the missing link between ancient and modern elephants in the form of the fossilized remains of a pig-sized creature in Eritrea. Sanders claims that the dating of the fossil to 27 million years ago also pushes the origins of elephants and mastodons five million years further into the past than previously recorded and asserts that 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 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 Musee 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 agriculture, urban settlement and trade in Eritrea was found in the region inhabited by people dating back to 3500 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. Expeditions to this very land were launched by the Ancient Egyptians as early as the 25th century BC and were chronicled in more detail in later expeditions during the reign of the female Pharao Hatshepsut in the 15th century BC.
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 ninth century BC of another agricultural and urban settlement that traded both with the Sabaeans 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.
.
Around the eighth 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 fifth century BC, the state of Aksum arose in the northern Ethiopian Highlands. It grew during the fourth century BC and came into prominence during the first century AD, minting its own coins by the third century, converting in the fourth 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 center moved farther inland to the highlands of what is today Ethiopia.
Medieval history
During the medieval period, contemporary with and
following the disintegration of the Axumite state,
several states as well as tribal and clan lands
emerged in the area known today as Eritrea. Between
the eighth and thirteenth 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 had taken the
Dahlak archipelago by 702.
In the main highland area and adjacent coastline of
what is now Eritrea there emerged a Kingdom called
Midir Bahr or Midri Bahri (Tigrinya) ruled by the
Bahr negus (or Bahr negash, "ruler of the sea"),
Parts
of the southwestern lowlands were under the dominion
of the Funj sultanate of Sinnar. Eastern areas
under the control of the Afar since
ancient times came to form part of the sultanate of
Adal and when that disintegrated, the coastal
areas, thereamong those pertaining today to Eritrea,
had become ottoman vassals. As the kingdom of Midre
Bahri and feodal rule was weakened, the main highland
(Kebessa) areas in Eritrea would later be named
Mereb Mellash, meaning "beyond the Mereb," defining
the region as the area north of the Mareb River
which to this day is a natural boundary between the
modern states of Eritrea and Ethiopia. Roughly the same area also came to be
referred as Hamasien in the 19th century, before
the invasion of Ethiopian King Yohannes IV which
immediately preceded and was partly repulsed by
Italian colonialists. In these areas, feodal authority
was particularly weak or inexistent and the autonomy
of the landowning peasantry was particularly strong, a
kind of Republic was exemplified by the a set of
local customary laws legislated by elected elders
councils (shimagile)
An Ottoman invading force under Suleiman I
conquered Massawa in 1557, 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
in Ethiopia before being repulsed. Yeshaq was
able to retake much of what the Ottomans captured with
Ethiopian assistance, but he later twice revolted
against the Emperor of Ethiopia with Ottoman
support. 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
A Roman Catholic Priest by the name o Giuseppe Sapetto acting on behalf of a Genovese shipping company called Rubattino in 1869 purchased the locality of Eritrea. 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 northward along the Red Sea coast toward 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 Ethiopian Emperor Yohannes IV. Nevertheless the Italians consolidated their possessions into one colony, henceforth known as Eritrea, territory of Italy as of New Years Day 1890. The Italians remained the colonial power in Eritrea throughout the lifetime of fascism and the beginnings of World War II when they were defeated by Allied forces in 1941, and Eritrea became a British protectorate.
After the war, the United Nations conducted a lengthy inquiry regarding the status of Eritrea, with the superpowers each vying for a stake in the state's future. Britain the last administrator at the time put forth the suggestion to partition Eritrea between Sudan and Ethiopia, separating christians and moslems. It was instantly rejected by Eritrean political parties
as well as the UN.. The United States point of view was expressed by its then chief foreign policy advisor John Foster Dulles who said:
:"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 has to be linked with our ally, Ethiopia," — John Foster Dulles, 1952.
A UN plebiscite voted 46 to 10 to have Eritrea be federated with Ethiopia which was later stipulated on December 2 of 1950 in resolution 390 (V). 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. In 1961 the 30-year Eritrean Struggle for Independence, began after years of peaceful student protests against Ethiopian violation of Eritrean democratic rights and autonomy had culminated in violent repression and the Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie I's dissolution of the federation in 1961 followed by shutting down the parliament and declaring Eritrea the 14th province of Ethiopia in 1962..
Struggle for independence
Eritreans formed the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) and rebelled. The rebel movement was initially dominated by the ELF which was a conservative grass-roots movement dominated by Muslim lowlanders and thus received backing from Arab socialist governments such as Syria and Egypt. Ethiopia's imperial government received support from the United States which had established a radio listening base (the Kagnew base) in Eritrea's Ethiopian-occupied capital, Asmara. Internal divisions within the ELF based on religion, ethnicity, clan and, sometimes, personalities and ideologies, led to the weakening and factioning of the ELF from which sprung the Eritrean People's Liberation Front. The EPLF professed Marxism and egalitarian values devoid of gender, religion, or ethnic bias. It came to be supported by a growing Eritrean diaspora. Bitter fighting broke out between the ELF and EPLF during the late 1970s and 1980s for dominance over Eritrea. The ELF continued to dominate the Eritrean landscape well into the 1970s when the struggle for independence neared victory due to Ethiopia's internal turmoil caused by the socialist revolution against the monarchy. The ELF's gains suffered when Ethiopia was overtaken by the Derg, a Marxist military junta with backing from the Soviet Union and other communist countries. Nevertheless, Eritrean resistance continued mainly in the northern parts of the country around the Sudanese border from where the most important supply lines came and the town of Nakfa which came to symbolize the Eritrean struggle. (The Eritrean currency is named after it.)
The numbers of the EPLF swelled in the 1980s as did that of Ethiopian resistance movements with which the EPLF struck alliances to overthrow the communist Ethiopian regime. However, due to their Marxist orientation, neither of the resistance movements fighting Ethiopia's communist regime could count on US or other support against the Soviet backed might of the Ethiopian military, which has been sub-Saharan Africa's largest, outside of South Africa. The EPLF relied largely on armaments captured from the Ethiopian army itself as well as financial and political support from the Eritrean diaspora and the cooperation of neighbouring states hostile to Ethiopia such as Somalia and Sudan (although the support of the latter was briefly interrupted and turned into hostility in agreement with Ethiopia during the Gaafar Nimeiry administration between 1971 and 1985). Drought, famine, and intensive offensives launched by the Ethiopian army on Eritrea took a heavy toll on the population — more than half a million fled to Sudan as refugees. Amid the culmination of Soviet support to Ethiopia and a major fall-out between Eritrean and Ethiopian anti-government rebels, the EPLF achieved two of its greatest and most decisive victories. In 1985, Eritrean elite commandos infiltrated the Ethiopian and Soviet held air force base in Asmara and destroyed all 30 fighter jets there, suffering only one casualty. In 1988 during a massive Ethiopian military offensive against Eritrean rebels, a third of the Ethiopian army was annihilated in the northern Eritrean town of Afabet.
Following the decline of the Soviet Union in 1989 and diminishing support for the Ethiopian war, Eritrean rebels advanced further, capturing the port of Massawa and putting the Ethiopian and Soviet naval capabilities there out of action. By 1990 and early 1991 virtually all Eritrean territory had been liberated by EPLF except for the capital, whose only connection with the rest of government-held Ethiopia during the last year of the war was by an air-bridge. In 1991, Eritrean and Ethiopian rebels jointly held the Ethiopian capital under siege as the Ethiopian communist dictator Mengistu Hailemariam fled to Zimbabwe where he lives to this day despite requests for extradition. The Ethiopian army finally capitulated and Eritrea was completely in Eritrean hands in May 24, 1991 when the rebels marched into Asmara while Ethiopian rebels with Eritrean assistance overtook the government in Ethiopia. The new Ethiopian government conceded to Eritrea's demands to have an internationally (UN) supervised referendum to be held in Eritrea which ended in April 1993 with an overwhelming vote by Eritreans for independence. This was declared on the historical date of May 24, 1993.
Independence
The struggle for independence ended in 1991 with the EPLF expelling the Ethiopian Army from Eritrea and joining 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 occurred. 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 and issue a final and binding ruling. Along with the agreement the UN established a Temporary Security Zone consisting of a 25 km demilitarized buffer zone within Eritrea running along the length of the disputed border between the two states and patrolled by UN troops in the mission named UNMEE. Ethiopia was to withdraw to positions held before the outbreak of hostilities in May of 1998 thereamong Badme. The peace agreement would be completed with the implementation of the Border Commission's ruling, also ending the task of the peacekeeping mission of UNMEE. The EEBC's verdict came in April 2002 which awarded Badme to Eritrea. However, Ethiopia still refuses to implement the ruling it had signed, resulting in the continuation of the UNMEE mission and a continued hostility between the two states who as of yet do not have any diplomatic relations.
Regions and districts
Eritrea is divided into six regions (zobas) and subdivided into districts ("sub-zobas"). The geographical extent of the regions is based on their respective hydrological properties. This 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, followed by the sub-region, are:
Politics and government
The National Assembly of 150 seats (of which 75 were occupied by handpicked EPLF guerilla members while the rest went to local candidates and diasporans more or less sympathetic of the regime), 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, uninspected local elections have continued in Eritrea. The most recent round of local government elections were held in May 2004. On further elections, the President's Chief of Staff, Yemane Ghebremeskel said,
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 led 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. Meanwhile, 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 ," 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 kilometers by 900 kilometers 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 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
Eritrea is located in East Africa, more specifically the 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 drier 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. In 2006, Eritrea announced it would become the first country in the world to turn its entire coast into an environmentally protected zone. The 1 347 km (837 mile) coastline, along with another 1 946 km (1,209-miles) of coast around its more than 350 islands, will come under governmental protection.
The main cities of the country are the capital city of Asmara and the port town of Asseb in the southeast, as well as the towns of Massawa to the east, and Keren to the north.
Economy
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. The only natural disaster that sometimes affects Eritrea, drought, has often created trouble in the farming areas.
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 62%.
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 significant of these projects has been the building of a coastal highway of more than 500 km connecting Massawa with Asseb as well as the rehabilitation of the Eritrean Railway. The rail line now runs between the Port of Massawa and the capital Asmara.
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, and low skills.
Society
Demographics
Eritrean society is ethnically heterogeneous. Independent census has yet to be conducted but the Tigrinya and the Tigre people together make up about 45%. The rest of the population comprises 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. For example, the Jebertis are Muslim Tigrinyas who consider themselves a separate ethnicity, but in Eritrea ethnicity is determined by language 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
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), Tigre, Tigrinya, and the newly recognized Dahlik; these languages (primarily Tigre and Tigrinya) 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 is 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 education 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, ethnic discrimination, and 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
Eritrea has two dominant religions, Christianity and Islam. Muslims, who make up about 50% of the population predominantly follow Sunni Islam. The Christians (about 50%) 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.
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 jurisdiction of Oriental Orthodox 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 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. Among other things, the government's registration system requires religious groups to submit personal information on their membership 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, Bahá'í faith, 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. Many have been incarcerated for months or even years. None have been charged officially or given access to judicial process. In its 2006 religious freedom report, the U.S. State Department for the third year in a row named Eritrea a "Country of Particular Concern," designating it one of the worst violators of religious freedom in the world.
There is one last native Jew in Eritrea, formerly from a community of hundreds in Asmara, whose ancestors had crossed from Aden in the late 19th century.
Culture
The Eritrean region has traditionally been a nexus for trade throughout the world. Because of this, the influence of diverse cultures can be seen throughout Eritrea. Today, the most obvious influences in the capital, Asmara, are that of Italy. Throughout Asmara, there are small cafes serving beverages common to Italy. In Asmara, there is a clear merging of the Italian colonial influence with the traditional Tigrinya lifestyle. In the villages of Eritrea, these changes never took hold.
In the cities, before the Occupation and during the early years, the import of Bollywood films was commonplace, while Italian and American films were available in the cinemas as well. In the 1980s and since Independence, however, American films have certainly become the most common. Vying for market share are films by local producers, who have slowly come into their own. The global broadcast of Eri-TV has brought cultural images to the large Eritrean population in the Diaspora who frequents the country every summer.
Traditional Eritrean dress is quite varied with the Kunama traditionally dressing in brightly colored clothes while the Tigrinya and Tigre traditionally dress in bright white costumes, resembling traditional Oriental and Indian clothing. The Rashaida women are ornately bejeweled and scarfed.
Popular sports in Eritrea are football and bicycle racing. Eritrea is not a strong football power, however, owing to its existing infrastructure and talent.
Almost unique on the African continent, the Tour of Eritrea is a bicycle race from the hot desert beaches of Massawa, up the winding mountain highway with its precipitous valleys and cliffs to the capital Asmara. From there, it continues downwards onto the western plains of the Gash-Barka Zone, only to return back to Asmara from the south. This is, by far, the most popular sport in Eritrea, though, as of late long-distance running has garnered its own supporters. The momentum for long-distance running in Eritrea can be seen in the successes of Zersenay Tadesse and Mebrahtom (Meb) Keflezighi, both Olympians.
See also
Further reading
External links
Government
Other
