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Eritrea
Eritrea 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. Upon Italy's losses in World War II, Eritrea was ruled
as a British protectorate between 1941 and 1952. Following a UN
plebiscite in 1950, a resolution 390 (V) was adopted to have Eritrea
enter into a federation with Ethiopia in 1952. Emperor Haile Selassie I,
nevertheless annexed Eritrea as Ethiopia's 14th province in 1961
sparking the 30-year war that lasted from 1961 to 1991. Following a UN
supervised referendum called UNOVER Eritrea declared- and gained
international recognition for its independence in 1993. 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 (Oriental Orthodox Christianity and Sunni Islam) 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 fifteenth 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 nineteenth century. It is the Italian form of the Greek name
(Erythraîa; see also List of traditional Greek place names), which
derives from the Greek term for the Red Sea.
Pre-historyOne 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
Elephant Research Foundation of Wayne State University in Michigan, USA,
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 Muséum national d'histoire naturelle
in Paris; the National Museum of Eritrea; and German Primate Center in
Gottingen, Germany.
Early historyThe 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 much of Eritrea and
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 seventh century; 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 north eastern 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 south western 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, there among those pertaining today to
Eritrea, had become Ottoman vassals. As the kingdom of Midre Bahri and
feudal 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
nineteenth century, before the invasion of Ethiopian King Yohannes IV
which immediately preceded and was partly repulsed by Italian
colonialists. In these areas, feudal authority was particularly weak or
inexistent and the autonomy of the landowning peasantry was particularly
strong, a kind of Republic was exemplified by the 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 of Giuseppe Sapetto acting on behalf of a
Genovese shipping company called Rubattino in 1869 purchased the
locality of Assab from the local sultan. 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 Kingdom of Italy ruled Eritrea from 1890 to 1940. In 1936,
Mussolini created the Italian Empire (Italian East Africa), with the
union of Eritrea, Ethiopia and Italian Somalia. Eritrea enjoyed
considerable industrialization and development of modern infrastructure
during Italian rule (such as roads and the Eritrean Railway).
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. Noted artist Aldo Giorgini was a young child caught up in
this difficult transitional period, and his experiences during this time
became a recurrent theme in his artwork. The best Italian colonial
forces were the Eritrean Ascari, who were defined by Amedeo Guillet as
"the Prussians of Africa, but without the defects of the Prussians".
They actively supported even the Italian guerrilla against the British
between 1941 and 1943.
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 Muslims. The idea 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 [Eritrea] has to be
linked with our ally, Ethiopia.
John Foster Dulles, 1952A UN plebiscite voted 46 to 10 to have Eritrea
be federated with Ethiopia which was later stipulated on December 2,
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
fourteenth province of Ethiopia in 1962.
Struggle for independence 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 ELF was initially 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 functioning 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's leadership was educated in China. 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 a socialist
revolution against monarchy there.
The ELF's gains suffered when Ethiopia's ailing US-backed Emperor was
deposed and replaced by the Derg, a Marxist military junta with backing
from the Soviet Union and other communist countries, who continued the
Ethiopian policy of repressing Eritrean "separatists" with increased
military assistance and fervour. Nevertheless, the Eritrean resistance
which saw itself forced to retreat from most of the Eritrean countryside
it had previously occupied, became instead entrenched in the northern
parts of the country around the Sudanese border from where the most
important supply lines came. The heavily bombarded and embattled
northern town of Nakfa 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, weakening and all but annihilating the
precursor ELF. However, due to their own Marxist orientation, neither
EPLF nor any of the Ethiopian resistance movements were able to aquire
any significant US/Western or Arab support against the Soviet backed
might of the Ethiopian military which has since 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 diasporas 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 by both Eritrea
and Ethiopia.
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 dubbed UNOVER to be
held in Eritrea which ended in April 1993 with an overwhelming vote by
Eritreans for independence. Independence was declared on May 24, 1993.
Independence
Upon Eritrea's declaration of independence, 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.
Faced with limited economic resources and a country shattered by decades
of war, the government embarked on a reconstruction and defense effort
later called the Warsai Yikalo Program project based on the labour of
national servicemen and women. It is still ongoing and combines military
service with construction, teaching as well as agricultural work to
improve the country's food security.
The government also attempts to tap into the resources of the Eritreans
living abroad by levying a 2% tax on the gross income of those who wish
to gain full economic rights and access as citizens in Eritrea (land
ownership, business license etc).While at the same time encouraging
tourism and investment both from Eritreans living abroad and people of
other nations and nationalities.
This has been complicated by Eritrea's tumultuous relations with its
neighbours, lack of stability and subsequent political problems.
Eritrea severed diplomatic relations with Sudan in 1994 citing that the
latter was hosting islamic terrorist groups to destabilize Eritrea and
both countries entered into an acrimonious relationship, each accusing
the other of hosting various opposition rebel groups or "terrorists" and
soliciting outside support to destabilize the other. Diplomatic
relations were resumed over 10 years later in 2005 following a
reconciliation agreement reached with the help of Qatar's negotiation in
1999. Eritrea now plays a prominent role in the internal Sudanese peace
and reconciliation effort.
Eritrea was also embroiled in a brief war with Yemen over a border
dispute surrounding the Hanish Islands in 1996 which was later resolved
by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague in 1998 and relations
between both states have since normalized.
Perhaps the conflict with the deepest impact on independent Eritrea has
been the renewed hostility with Ethiopia. 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 kilometre
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 there among 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. Diplomatic relations with Djibouti were briefly
severed during the border war with Ethiopia in 1998 but later resumed in
2000 due to a dispute over Djibouti's intimate relation with Ethiopia
during the war.
Regions and districts Regions of Eritrea- 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.
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. No time frame was announced for the alleged obscure
presidency. 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). In 2007, Reporters Without
Borders, a lobby group, ranked Eritrea bottom in the world for overall
press freedom in its annual study.
National electionsEritrean 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 2004. On further elections, the President's
Chief of Staff, Yemane Ghebremeskel said,
“ 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. ” Foreign relations Main article: Foreign relations of
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. As of September
2007, relations with the US appear to be worsening. US Assistant
Secretary of State, Jendayi Frazer, has called the nation a 'state
sponsor of terrorism' and the US government is considering adding
Eritrea to its list of rogue states, along with Iran, North Korea and
Cuba. The reason for this is the presence of Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys,
an exiled Somali Islamist leader, whom the US suspects of having links
to Al Qaeda, at a recent Somalian opposition conference in Asmara.
Economic sanctions against Eritrea could soon follow. 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 approx. 19,000 Eritreans and 123,000 Ethiopians 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 [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 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 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. On July 26, 2007, the Associated Press reported
that Eritrea had been supplying weapons to the Somali insurgent group
Shabab, who is allegedly tied to al Qaeda. The incident has fueled
concerns that Somalia may become the grounds for a de-facto war between
Eritrea and Ethiopia, who invaded Somalia in December 2006 with U.S.
assistance to overthrow the rule of the widely popular Islamic Courts
Union which had stabilized the country and unified the capital Mogadishu
for the first time since 1991. Amid fears of an emerging islamic and
nationalist Somalia, Ethiopia with US assistance invaded Somalia,
putting in place the weak and locally unpopular UN/AU-backed government
which without Ethiopian support had been unable to exercise any control
beyond its base in Baidoa and along the Ethio-Somali border. For its
part, Eritrea is hosting members of the ousted Union of Islamic Courts
and the Somali Free Parliament. The Eritrean government has been accused
of sponsoring, arming and hosting numerous militant leaderships and
separatist rebels in the horn of Africa. According to the United States,
the Isaias's government is "sponsoring and supporting the rebel groups"
who are "also attacking civilians and are a part of the problem in
Darfur." Thus, even though the Eritrean government bringing these same
rebels to the table is positive, the US claims that the Eritrean
government is doing this "by effectively destabilizing Sudan, because
they're paying for rebels who are part of the process of destabilizing
that country." The United States is considering to label Eritrea a state
sponsor of terrorism which carries sanctions with it.
Geography of
Eritrea
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 Somali plate) 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 Asseb in the southeast, as well as the towns of Massawa to
the east, and Keren to the north.
EnvironmentEritrea formerly supported a large population of elephants.
Ptolemaic kings of Egypt used it as a source of war elephants in the
third century BC. Between 1955 and 2001 there were no reported sightings
of elephant herds, and they were thought to have fallen victim to the
war of independence. In December 2001 a herd of about 30, including 10
juveniles, was observed in the vicinity of the Gash River. The elephants
seemed to have formed a symbiotic relationship with olive baboons. Is it
estimated that there are around 100 elephants left in Eritrea, the most
northerly of East Africa's elephants.
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.
Economy
See also: Eritrean Railway and Transport in Eritrea 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 of EritreaEritrean society is ethnically heterogeneous.
Independent census has yet to be conducted but the Tigrinya and the
Tigre people together make up about 80%. These form the bulk of the
countries predominantly semitic population which are thought to have
originated from massive migrations from Saba in Southern Arabia between
900 and 500 BC. The Sabean area in Eritrea is mainly to be found in the
Kebessa highlands in central and northern Eritrea. There the Sabeans
found the same geographical conditions as in their native Saba, suitable
to terracing and their pre-existing agricultural modes of production.
Later more recent migrations from Arabia includes the Arabic speaking
Rashaida who arrived in Eritrea in the late 19th century and comprise
less than 1% of the population.
The rest of the population comprises the smaller nations of the Saho,
Hedareb, Afar, Bilen who constitute the cushitic stock of the population
and are thought to be some of the oldest inhabitants of the Horn of
Africa region along with the nilotic peoples who are represented in
Eritrea by the Kunama and Nara.
Each nationality speaks a different native tongue but, typically, many
of the minorities speak more than one language.
There exist minorities of Italians and Ethiopian Tigrayans. Neither is
generally given citizenship unless through marriage or even more rarely:
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.
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.
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 49% of the population
predominantly follow Sunni Islam. The Christians (about 49%) 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.
Since May 2002, the Government of Eritrea has officially recognized the
Eritrean Orthodox Tewahdo Church, Sunni Islam, Catholicism, and the
Evangelical Lutheran church. All other faiths and denominations are
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 such as the 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 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 the 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
Cuisine of
Eritrea, Literature of Eritrea, and Music of Eritrea 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. Successful domestic films are
produced by government and independent studios with revenue from ticket
sales typically covering the production costs.
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. In recent
years Eritrean athletes have seen increasing success in the
international arena.
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.
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