Eritrea

Hagere Ertra State of Eritrea
Flag Coat of arms
Anthem: Ertra, Ertra, Ertra
Capital	Asmara 15°20′N 38°55′E
Largest city	capital
Official languages	none at national level1
Government	Transitional government
- President	Isaias Afewerki
Independence	from Ethiopia
- de facto	May 24 1991
- de jure	May 24 1993
Area
- Total	117,600 km² (100th) 45,405 sq mi
- Water (%)	negligible
Population
- July 2005 estimate	4,401,000
- 2002 census	4,298,269
- Density	37/km² 96/sq mi
GDP (PPP)	2005 estimate
- Total	$4.471 billion
- Per capita	$1,000
HDI  (2005)	0.454 (low)
Currency	Nakfa (ERN)
Time zone	EAT (UTC+3)
- Summer (DST)	not observed (UTC+3)
Internet TLD	.er
Calling code	+291

Eritrea is a country situated in northern East Africa. A former colony of Italy, a resolution was adopted by the United Nations to have Eritrea enter a federation with Ethiopia in 1952. Emperor Haile Selassie I nevertheless annexed Eritrea as Ethiopia's province in 1961, sparking a thirty-year war. 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 the border conflict with Ethiopia that began in May 1998.

Geography

Map 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. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast.

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. The highest point of the country, Amba Soira, is located in the center of Eritrea, at 9,902 feet (3,018 meters) 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 837-mile (1,347 km) coastline, along with another 1,209 miles (1,946 km) 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.

History

The oldest written reference to the territory now known as Eritrea is the chronicled expedition launched to the fabled Punt by the Ancient Egyptians in the twenty-fifth century B.C.E. 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 Italian colonialists in the late nineteenth century. It is the Italian form of the Greek name Erythraîa, 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. The cranium was dated to over one million years old. In 1999 scientists discovered some of the first examples of humans using tools to harvest marine resources at a site along the Red Sea coast. The site contained obsidian tools dated to over 125,000 years old, from the paleolithic era. Cave paintings in central and northern Eritrea attest to the early settlement of hunter-gatherers in this region.

Early history

The earliest evidence of agriculture, urban settlement, and trade in Eritrea was found in the region inhabited by people dating back to 3,500 B.C.E. Based on the archaeological evidence, there seems to have been a connection between the peoples of that site and the civilizations of the Nile River Valley, namely Ancient Egypt and Nubia.. Ancient Egyptian sources also cite 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.

In the highlands, another site was found from the ninth century b.c.e. of a settlement that traded both with the Sabaeans across the Red Sea and with the civilizations of the Nile Valley farther west along caravan routes.

1913 sketch by the Deutsche Aksum-Expedition of Hawulti, a pre-Aksumite or early Aksumite stela at Matara

.

Around the eighth century b.c.e., 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 b.c.e., the state of Aksum arose in the northern Ethiopian Highlands. It grew during the fourth century b.c.e. and came into prominence during the first century c.e., 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.

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 in Arabia, Aksum's trade and power 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. 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). 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 there, among those pertaining today to Eritrea, had become Ottoman vassals. As the kingdom of Midre Bahri and feudal rule weakened, the main highland areas 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 a set of local customary laws legislated by elected councils of elders.

File:Massawaturkishbuilding.jpg

Ottoman architecture in Massawa.

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

File:EPLFrebels.jpg

Members of the EPLF. Isaias Afwerki, the current president of Eritrea, is second from bottom left.

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.

During the Scramble for Africa, Italy began vying for a possession along the strategic coast of what was to become the world's busiest shipping lane. The government 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. Nevertheless, the Italians consolidated their possessions into one colony, henceforth known as Eritrea, in 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, a UN plebiscite voted for federation with Ethiopia, though Eritrea would have its own parliament and administration and would be represented in 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's dissolution of the federation and declaration of Eritrea as a province of Ethiopia.

Struggle for independence

File:Shida monument.jpg

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. 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 sprang 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, where the most important supply lines were.

The numbers of the EPLF swelled in the 1980s, as did those 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 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 neighboring 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. 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. By early 1991 virtually all Eritrean territory had been liberated by EPLF except 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 Haile Mariam fled to Zimbabwe, where he lives 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, dubbed UNOVER. In April 1993, an overwhelming number of Eritreans voted for independence.

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, based on the labor 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 Eritreans living abroad by levying a 2 percent 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 nationalities.

This has been complicated by Eritrea's tumultuous relations with its neighbors, lack of stability, and subsequent political problems.

Eritrea severed diplomatic relations with Sudan in 1994, claiming that the latter was hosting Islamic terrorist groups to destabilize Eritrea, and both countries entered 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 ten years later in 2005, following a reconciliation agreement reached with the help of Qatar's negotiation. Eritrea now plays a prominent role in the internal Sudanese peace and reconciliation effort.

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 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. Ethiopia was to withdraw to positions held before the outbreak of hostilities. The verdict in April 2002 awarded Badme to Eritrea. However, Ethiopia still refuses to implement the ruling it had signed, resulting in the continuation of the UN mission and continued hostility between the two states, which do not have any diplomatic relations.

Diplomatic relations with Djibouti were briefly severed during the border war with Ethiopia in 1998 but were resumed in 2000.

Politics

A view from the Keren-Asmara Highway.

The National Assembly of 150 seats (of which 75 were occupied by handpicked EPLF guerrilla members while the rest went to local candidates and diasporans more or less sympathetic to the regime), was formed in 1993, shortly after independence. It "elected" the current president, Isaias Afewerki. National elections have been periodically scheduled and canceled. Independent local sources of political information on domestic politics are scarce; in September 2001 the government closed down all 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 for its alleged record of religious persecution.

Foreign relations

Eritrea is a member of the African Union (AU), but it has withdrawn its representative to protest the AU's lack of leadership in facilitating the implementation of a binding 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 ongoing war on terror, tension has grown in other areas. Eritrea's relationship with Italy and the EU has become equally strained in many areas.

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 nineteen thousand Eritreans were killed.

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

Despite the tension over the border with Sudan, Eritrea has been recognized as a broker for peace between the separate factions of the Sudanese civil war.

The dispute with Yemen was referred 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 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 against Ethiopia. The situation was further escalated by the continued effort of the Eritrean and Ethiopian leaders to support each other's opposition.

On July 26, 2007, the Associated Press reported that Eritrea had been supplying weapons for a Somali insurgant group with ties to Al Qaeda called Shabab. The incident has fueled concerns that Somalia may become the grounds for a de facto war between Eritrea and Ethiopia, which sent forces to Somalia in December 2006 to help stabilize the country and reinforce the internationally backed government.

Administrative divisions

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.

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. [1]

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.

Demographics

File:Eritrea-people-map.gif

A map indicating the ethnic composition of Eritrea.

Eritrean society is ethnically heterogeneous. An independent census has yet to be conducted, but the Tigrinya and the Tigre people together make up about 80 percent. 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 many of the minorities speak more than one language.

The Rashaida came to Eritrea in the 19th century, from the Arabian Coast. They do not usually intermarry, often are nomadic, and number approximately 61,000, less than 1 percent of the population. The Kunama are one of the earliest settled peoples in 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 in the Kebessa highlands surrounding the capital Asmara and extending southwards.

Eritrea is a multilingual and multicultural country with two dominant religions (Sunni Islam and Oriental Orthodox Christianity) and nine ethnic groups.

Languages

Rashaida children in the Eritrean lowlands.

The country has no official language, but it has three working languages: Tigrinya, Arabic, and English. Italian is widely spoken among the older generation. 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 percent 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 left over 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

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

Eritrea has two dominant religions, Christianity and Islam. 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 Eastern Orthodox church, but small groups of Roman Catholics, Protestants, and other denominations also exist.

Since May 2002, the government of Eritrea has only officially recognized the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahdo 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.^{[citation needed]} The few organizations that have met all of the registration requirements have still not received official recognition.^{[citation needed]}

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 nineteenth century.

Culture

The typical Kitcha fit-fit is presented here with a scoop of fresh yogurt and topped with berbere (spice).

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.

File:Kunama Eritrea.JPG

A traditional Kunama herder posing for a picture near Barentu, Zoba Gash-Barka.

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.

Further reading

• Ancient Ethiopia, David W. Phillipson (1998)
• Cliffe, Lionel; Connell, Dan; Davidson, Basil (2005), Taking on the Superpowers: Collected Articles on the Eritrean Revolution (1976-1982). Red Sea Press, ISBN 1-56902-188-0
• Cliffe, Lionel & Davidson, Basil (1988), The Long Struggle of Eritrea for Independence and Constructive Peace. Spokesman Press, ISBN 0-85124-463-7
• Connell, Dan (1997), Against All Odds: A Chronicle of the Eritrean Revolution With a New Afterword on the Postwar Transition. Red Sea Press, ISBN 1-56902-046-9
• Connell, Dan (2001), Rethinking Revolution: New Strategies for Democracy & Social Justice : The Experiences of Eritrea, South Africa, Palestine & Nicaragua. Red Sea Press, ISBN 1-56902-145-7
• Connell, Dan (2004), Conversations with Eritrean Political Prisoners. Red Sea Press, ISBN 1-56902-235-6
• Connell, Dan (2005), Building a New Nation: Collected Articles on the Eritrean Revolution (1983-2002). Red Sea Press, ISBN 1-56902-198-8
• Daniel Kendie (2005), The Five Dimensions Of The Eritrean Conflict 1941 - 2004: Deciphering the Geo-Political Puzzle. Signature Book Printing, ISBN 1-932433-47-3
• Firebrace, James & Holand, Stuart (1985), Never Kneel Down: Drought, Development and Liberation in Eritrea. Red Sea Press, ISBN 0-932415-00-8
• Jordan Gebre-Medhin (1989), Peasants and Nationalism in Eritrea. Red Sea Press, ISBN 0-932415-38-5
• Hill, Justin (2002), 'Ciao Asmara, A classic account of contemporary Africa'. Little, Brown, ISBN 978-0349115269
• Iyob, Ruth (1997), The Eritrean Struggle for Independence : Domination, Resistance, Nationalism, 1941-1993. Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-59591-6
• Jacquin-Berdal, Dominique; Plaut, Martin (2004), Unfinished Business: Ethiopia and Eritrea at War. Red Sea Press, ISBN 1-56902-217-8
• Johns, Michael (1992), "Does Democracy Have a Chance," Congressional Record, May 6, 1992
• Keneally, Thomas (1990), "To Asmara" ISBN 0446391719
• Killion, Tom (1998), Historical Dictionary of Eritrea. Scarecrow Press, ISBN 0-8108-3437-5
• Wrong, Michela (2005), I Didn't Do It For You: how the world betrayed a small African Nation. Harper Collins, ISBN 0-06-078092-4
• Ogbaselassie, G (2006-01-10). Response to remarks by Mr. David Triesman, Britain's parliamentary under-secretary of state with responsibility for Africa. Retrieved 2006-06-07.
• Pateman, Roy (1998), Eritrea: Even the Stones Are Burning. Red Sea Press, ISBN 1-56902-057-4
• Rena, Ravinder (2006-01-12). Student-Centered Education is the Best Way of Learning. Retrieved 2006-06-07.
• Eritrea-Ethiopia versus western nations (2005-12-09). Retrieved 2006-06-07.

External links

Government

• Official website of the Ministry of Information of Eritrea
• Official website of the Ministry of Education of Eritrea

Other

• CIA World Factbook - Eritrea
• Extract from Justin Hill's Ciao Asmara in The Globalist Magazine

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

• Eritrea  ^history

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

• History of "Eritrea"

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.