History

The borders of modern-day Eritrea were developed during the Italian occupation of Ethiopia, which began in the late 1800s. Before that, the region’s residents, of Tigrayan descent, had been under Ethiopian rule.

During Fascist Italian rule, beginning in about 1922, Mussolini’s administration instituted segregation laws in Eritrea, emphasizing the racial and ethnic superiority of the Italian occupiers. After Italy attempted to expand its territory in 1941, however, neighboring British colonies defeated Italian forces in the battle of Keren, and the Eritrean colony was kept under British military rule until the Allied forces of World War II could determine its form of governance.

In 1950 a United Nations resolution created a federation between Eritrea and Ethiopia, in a kind of arranged marriage that left both sides unsatisfied. Eritrea’s first act of armed resistance against Ethiopia occurred in 1961 and formed the basis for Ethiopia’s later forcible annexation of Eritrea.

Over the next three decades, the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front united a diverse population of Eritreans in their armed quest for liberty. In 1990, EPLF forces captured the port of Massawa, and in 1991 the group began attacking the capital city of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa. On April 25, 1993, the Eritrean people voted almost unanimously in a referendum to liberate their country officially.

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1. Located in the Horn of Africa with Sudan to the north, Ethiopia to the south, and Djibouti to the southeast, Eritrea is a country approximately the size of England, with over 714.5 miles (1,150 km) of coast along the Red Sea and more than 350 islands.
 
2. English is widely taught and understood and is one of the official languages, along with Tigrinya and Arabic. Italian, a remnant from Italy’s colonization of the area in the early 20th century, is also spoken in commercial and public business.
 
3. Although official numbers aren’t available, it is estimated that 40 percent of the population is Sunni Muslim and 40 percent Orthodox Christians. Two percent of the country practices indigenous religions. The remainder of the population belongs to other Christian denominations.
 
4. Eritrea has six provinces, or zobas: Dubub (which borders the Tigray in northern Ethiopia), Central (housing the country’s capital,Asmara), Southern Red Sea, Northern Red Sea, Gash Barka, and Anseba.
 
5. The local currency is the Eritrean Nafka, or ERN, introduced in 1997. In 2005 the government set the exchange rate at 15 ERN to one American dollar and mandated that all financial transactions be conducted using this local currency.

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