Eritrea
Geography - People - Economy - Government - Communications - Transportation - Military - Transnational IssuesCountry information - Eritrea
Country name - conventional long form : State of Eritrea
Country name - conventional short form : Eritrea
Country name - local long form : Hagere Ertra
Country name - local short form : Ertra
Country name - former : Eritrea Autonomous Region in Ethiopia
Country code : ER
Government type :
Capital - name : Asmara (Asmera)
Capital - time difference : UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time)
National holiday : Independence Day, 24 May (1993)
Population : 5,502,026 (July 2008 est.)
Nationality - noun : Eritrean(s)
Nationality - adjective : Eritrean
Languages : Afar, Arabic, Tigre and Kunama, Tigrinya, other Cushitic languages
Currency (code) : nakfa (ERN)
Currency code : ERN
Major infectious diseases - degree of risk : high
Major infectious diseases - note :
Eritrea is located Eastern Africa, bordering the Red Sea, between Djibouti and Sudan. The climate is hot, dry desert strip along Red Sea coast; cooler and wetter in the central highlands (up to 61 cm of rainfall annually, heaviest June to September); semiarid in western hills and lowlands. The terrain is dominated by extension of Ethiopian north-south trending highlands, descending on the east to a coastal desert plain, on the northwest to hilly terrain and on the southwest to flat-to-rolling plains.
Background
This entry usually highlights major historic events and current issues and may include a statement about one or two key future trends.Background : 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 (TSZ) on the border with Ethiopia. An international commission, organized to resolve the border dispute, posted its findings in 2002. However, both parties have been unable to reach agreement on implementing the decision. On 30 November 2007, the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission remotely demarcated the border by coordinates and dissolved itself, leaving Ethiopia still occupying several tracts of disputed territory, including the town of Badme. Eritrea accepted the EEBC's "virtual demarcation" decision and called on Ethiopia to remove its troops from the TSZ which it states is Eritrean territory. Ethiopia has not accepted the virtual demarcation decision.
