Eritrea
Name
| Official name | State of Eritrea — Hagere Ertra (ሃገረ ኤርትራ); Dawlat Iritriyā (دولة إرتريا) |
|---|---|
| Former names | Italian Eritrea (1890–1941); the British administration (1941–1952); the autonomous unit of Eritrea within Ethiopia (1952–1962); a province of Ethiopia (1962–1991) |
| Demonym | Eritrean |
| Meaning of the name | From the Latin Mare Erythraeum, the Red Sea — the Greek erythros, red; named by Italy in 1890 |
| Motto | None official |
Quick facts
| Capital | Asmara — Asmera — at 2,325 m; about 1 million |
|---|---|
| Other towns | Keren; Massawa, the old port; Assab, the southern port; Mendefera; Barentu; Adi Keyh; Dekemhare |
| Official language | None declared — Tigrinya, Arabic and English the working languages of government; nine national languages equal in law |
| Currency | Nakfa — ISO code ERN, Nfk; introduced 1997; fixed at 15 to the U.S. dollar |
| Time zone | East Africa Time, UTC+3, all year |
| Calling code | +291 |
| Internet domain | .er |
| ISO 3166 codes | ER · ERI · 232 |
| Vehicle registration code | ER |
| Driving side | Right |
| Electricity | 230 V, 50 Hz; plug types C and L |
| Independence | 24 May 1993, from Ethiopia — after the referendum of 23–25 April 1993, 99.8% for; de facto from 24 May 1991, the day the liberation front entered Asmara |
| National days | 24 May, Independence Day; 20 June, Martyrs' Day; 1 September, the Start of the Armed Struggle, for 1961; 8 February, Women's Day; Fenkil Day, 10 February, for the taking of Massawa in 1990 |
| Constitution | The constitution ratified 23 May 1997 has never been put into force; the president announced a new one in 2014 that has not appeared; the country is governed by decree |
| Population | About 3.5 million (UN, 2025 est.) — no census has ever been taken; the government's figures have run to six million and more |
| Area | 117,600 km² (45,406 sq mi) — land 101,000 km², water 16,600 km²; the Dahlak Archipelago of some 350 islands |
Flag & national symbols
| National flag | A red triangle from the hoist to the fly dividing a green upper triangle from a blue lower one — the blood of the struggle, the land, the sea — bearing a gold olive wreath and branch, the emblem of the flag of 1952; the flag of the liberation front with the wreath in place of its star, adopted 24 May 1993, its proportions fixed in 1995.Flag of Eritrea |
|---|---|
| Coat of arms | A camel in the desert within a wreath of olive branches, the name of the state below in Tigrinya, Arabic and English — the camel that carried the front's supplies through the war; adopted 24 May 1993 |
| National anthem | "Ertra, Ertra, Ertra" ("Eritrea, Eritrea, Eritrea") — words by Solomon Tsehaye Beraki, music by Isaac Abraham Meharezghi and Aron Tekle Tesfatsion; adopted 1993 |
| National colors | Green, red, blue and gold |
| National animal | The camel — the dromedary of the arms |
| National tree | The olive — on the flag and the arms; widely cited |
| National dish | Zigni with injera; the Italian pasta and cappuccino of Asmara; ga'at; widely cited |
| Symbol status | The flag, arms and anthem are fixed by proclamation of 1993; the animal by the arms; the tree and dish are widely cited |
Geography
| Location | The Horn of Africa on the Red Sea — between Sudan and Djibouti on the coast, Ethiopia inland; Yemen and Saudi Arabia across the water |
|---|---|
| Land borders | 1,840 km (1,143 mi) with three countries |
| Border with Ethiopia | 1,033 km (642 mi) — fought over at Badme in 1998–2000; ruled by the Boundary Commission in 2002; never demarcated |
| Border with Sudan | 682 km (424 mi) |
| Border with Djibouti | 125 km (78 mi) — the Ras Doumeira clash of 2008 |
| Coastline | 2,234 km (1,388 mi) — 1,151 km of mainland and 1,083 km of islands |
| Highest point | Emba Soira, 3,018 m (9,902 ft) |
| Lowest point | The Danakil Depression near Kulul, 75 m (246 ft) below sea level |
| Mean elevation | 353 m (1,158 ft) |
| Rivers | The Barka and the Anseba, north to Sudan; the Gash — the Mareb — along the Ethiopian border, its water lost in the Sudanese plain; the Setit — the Tekezé; no perennial river reaches the sea |
| Islands | The Dahlak Archipelago off Massawa — some 350 islands, Dahlak Kebir the largest, with the pearl beds of antiquity; the Hanish islands, ruled Yemen's in 1998 |
| Terrain | The central highlands at 2,000 m and more, the country's heart; the escarpment to the coastal desert plain; the western lowlands of the Gash-Barka; the Danakil in the south |
| Climate | Temperate in the highlands, with rains in summer; among the hottest and driest on earth on the coast — Massawa above 40°C, the Danakil beyond |
| Natural hazards | Drought and famine; locusts; the volcanoes of the Danakil — Nabro erupted in June 2011, its first in history; earthquakes |
| Natural resources | Gold, copper, zinc — the Bisha mine; potash at Colluli in the Danakil, among the largest deposits in the world; marble; salt; fish |
| Land use | Agricultural land about 75%, nearly all pasture; forest about 15% |
| National parks | The Semenawi Bahri green belt on the escarpment; the Dahlak Marine National Park; the Gash-Setit reserve with its elephants |
| UNESCO World Heritage | 1 — Asmara: a Modernist African City (2017), the Italian city of the 1930s |
| Administrative divisions | 6 regions — zobas — since 1996: Central (Maekel), Anseba, Gash-Barka, Southern (Debub), Northern Red Sea and Southern Red Sea; 58 districts |
People
| Population | About 3.5 million (UN, 2025 est.) — never counted |
|---|---|
| Population density | About 30 per km² (78 per sq mi) by the UN figure |
| Population growth | About 1% a year by the UN — emigration takes much of the natural increase |
| Median age | About 20 years |
| Life expectancy | About 67 years |
| Fertility rate | About 3.7 births per woman |
| Urban population | About 43% |
| Adult literacy | About 77% |
| Ethnic groups | Nine — the Tigrinya about 55%, the highland farmers; the Tigre about 30%, the lowland herders; the Saho, Kunama, Rashaida, Bilen, Afar, Nara and Hedareb |
| Languages | Tigrinya and Tigre, both Semitic; Arabic; Saho, Afar, Bilen, Kunama, Nara, Hedareb; English in the schools; Italian among the old |
| Religion | About half Christian — the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, with Catholics and Lutherans — and half Sunni Muslim; four faiths recognized, the rest banned since 2002 |
| Human Development Index | 0.503 (2023 data, 2025 report) — low; about 175th of 193 |
| The diaspora | About half a million Eritreans abroad as refugees — in Ethiopia, Sudan, Europe, Israel and North America — among the largest exoduses in the world for the country's size; the 2% "diaspora tax" levied on them |
| Sport | Cycling — the passion of the Italian years: Biniam Girmay, the first Black African to win a stage of the Tour de France, 2024, and its green jersey; Daniel Teklehaimanot; long-distance running — Zersenay Tadese's world half-marathon records; football, the national team often defecting on tour |
| Refugees within | About 100,000 refugees from Sudan and Ethiopia, and the Ethiopians who fled the Tigray war |
Government
| Form of government | A one-party state under the People's Front for Democracy and Justice, the former liberation front — no constitution in force, no elections, no independent courts, press or civil society |
|---|---|
| President | Isaias Afwerki (PFDJ), since 24 May 1993 — head of state, government and the armed forces, and chairman of the party; the commander of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front from 1987; born 2 February 1946 in Asmara; never elected, the presidential election of 1997 never held |
| Elections | None — no national election has ever been held; the National Assembly of 150, half from the party, has not met since 2002; the local elections of the 1990s the last of any kind |
| The constitution | Ratified by a constituent assembly on 23 May 1997 and never implemented; a new one promised in 2014 and never seen |
| National service | Eighteen months by the proclamation of 1995, indefinite in practice since 2002 — every citizen from the last year of school at the Sawa camp into the army or the state's labor for years and decades; the UN commission of inquiry of 2016 found crimes against humanity, enslavement among them; the reason most give for fleeing |
| The prisoners of 2001 | Eleven ministers and veterans of the front who wrote to the president for reform, and the journalists of the independent press, arrested 18 September 2001 and held without charge or trial since — the G-15; the press closed the same day, and never reopened |
| Legal system | Transitional codes of 1991 and the civil and penal codes of 2015; the courts subject to the party; the special courts |
| Regions | 6, each under an administrator appointed by the president |
| Ethiopia | The war of 1998–2000 over Badme, some 70,000 to 100,000 dead, ended by the Algiers Agreement of 12 December 2000; the peace of 9 July 2018 with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, which won him the Nobel Prize; Eritrean troops fought in Ethiopia's Tigray war of 2020–22; since 2025 Ethiopia has revived its claim to the port of Assab, 60 km from its border — its loss "a mistake" to be corrected, sea access "a matter of survival" in Abiy's words, with a call for mediation on 28 October 2025 and a letter in February 2026 accusing Eritrea of occupying its territory, which Asmara called fabricated — and both armies have moved to the border; Eritrea's ties to Tigrayan factions the other charge |
| United Nations | Member since 28 May 1993; the Security Council's arms embargo and sanctions of 2009 over Somalia lifted 14 November 2018 |
| Regional memberships | The African Union; IGAD, its membership suspended by itself since 2007 and rejoined 2023; COMESA; the Arab League as an observer |
Economy
| GDP (nominal) | About US$2.6 billion (IMF est.) — the government publishes no national accounts, and the World Bank has no figure since 2011 |
|---|---|
| GDP per capita | About US$700 by the IMF's estimate |
| GDP growth | Unknown — the IMF's estimates near 3% a year |
| Economy by sector | Agriculture the livelihood of most — subsistence farming and herding; mining the export; services and the state the rest; the party's companies through the economy |
| Currency | Nakfa (ERN), fixed at 15 to the dollar |
| Mining | The Bisha mine of Zijin — gold, then copper and zinc, since 2011 — the largest export; the Zara gold mine; the Asmara project of copper and gold; the Colluli potash of the Danakil, licensed and stalled |
| Remittances | From the diaspora — among the largest sources of foreign exchange, with the 2% tax the state collects through its embassies |
| The ports | Massawa, the country's port; Assab, built by Italy for Ethiopia's trade and idle since the war of 1998 — the port Ethiopia now claims |
| Public finances | No published budget; debt reckoned above 150% of GDP by the IMF; no aid program with the IMF or the World Bank |
| Income classification | Low income (World Bank); a least developed country |
Transport & infrastructure
| Main airport | Asmara International Airport; Massawa; Assab |
|---|---|
| Airline | Eritrean Airlines, the national carrier, barely flying |
| Main port | Massawa; Assab; the free zone of Massawa |
| Railways | The Eritrean Railway of 1911 from Massawa up the escarpment to Asmara, 117 km — Italian-built, wrecked in the war, partly rebuilt by hand in the 1990s and worked by steam locomotives of the 1930s for visitors; the Asmara–Massawa cableway, once the longest in the world, dismantled in 1941 |
| Roads | About 16,000 km (9,900 mi), some 1,600 km paved; the Asmara–Massawa road down the escarpment; the road to Tesseney and Sudan |
| Asmara | The Italian city of the 1930s — the Fiat Tagliero service station of 1938, the Cinema Impero, the cathedral; a World Heritage site since 2017 |
History in dates
| c. 1st century | Adulis — the port of the Aksumite kingdom |
|---|---|
| 7th century | The first mosque in Africa at Massawa, by tradition |
| 1557 | The Ottomans take Massawa |
| 1869 | The Rubattino company buys Assab, 15 November |
| 1890 | The colony of Eritrea, 1 January |
| 1936 | Italian East Africa |
| 1941 | The British take Keren and Asmara, March–April |
| 1952 | Federated with Ethiopia, 15 September |
| 1961 | Hamid Idris Awate fires the first shots of the armed struggle, 1 September |
| 1962 | Ethiopia annexes Eritrea, 14 November |
| 1970 | The Eritrean People's Liberation Front founded |
| 1988 | The Battle of Afabet, March |
| 1991 | Asmara liberated, 24 May |
| 1993 | The referendum, 23–25 April; independence, 24 May |
| 1997 | The constitution ratified, 23 May — never applied; the nakfa |
| 1998–2000 | The war with Ethiopia; the Algiers Agreement, 12 December 2000 |
| 2001 | The arrests of 18 September; the press closed |
| 2009 | UN sanctions, 23 December |
| 2017 | Asmara inscribed by UNESCO, 8 July |
| 2018 | Peace with Ethiopia, 9 July; sanctions lifted, 14 November |
| 2020–2022 | Eritrean troops in the Tigray war |
| 2025–2026 | Ethiopia claims Assab; troops on the border |
Records & firsts
| A country that has never voted | No national election since independence in 1993 |
|---|---|
| The same president since the start | Isaias Afwerki, 33 years |
| At the bottom of press freedom | Last or near last in every index since 2007 |
| Africa's modernist city | Asmara, UNESCO 2017 |
| The hottest inhabited place | The Danakil, shared with Ethiopia and Djibouti |
| A first for African cycling | Biniam Girmay's Tour de France stage, 2024 |
| The longest cableway ever built | Asmara–Massawa, 75 km, 1937–41 |
| A currency named for a town | The nakfa |
| One of the largest exoduses for its size | Half a million abroad |
| A thirty-year war | 1961–1991 |
Frequently asked questions
What is the official name of Eritrea?
The State of Eritrea — Hagere Ertra in Tigrinya, Dawlat Iritriyā in Arabic — since independence from Ethiopia on 24 May 1993. The name is Italian, given to the colony in 1890 from the Latin Mare Erythraeum, the Greeks' "Red Sea." The land was the Aksumite port country of Adulis, the Ottoman and Egyptian province of the coast, Italian from 1890, British from 1941, federated to Ethiopia in 1952 and annexed in 1962, and fought for through thirty years of war.
What is the capital of Eritrea?
Asmara — Asmera — on the edge of the highland plateau at 2,325 m, one of the highest capitals in the world, with about a million people; its Italian modernist city of the 1930s, the Fiat Tagliero and the cinemas, was inscribed by UNESCO in 2017 as "Africa's modernist city." Keren, Massawa on the coast, Mendefera, Assab and Barentu are the other towns.
How big is Eritrea, and how many people live there?
About 117,600 km² (45,406 sq mi) — a little larger than Pennsylvania — along 1,151 km of Red Sea coast, with the Dahlak Archipelago of some 350 islands. No census has ever been taken. The UN estimates about 3.5 million people for 2025; the government has put the figure at six million and more, and the CIA World Factbook in between. Some half a million Eritreans live abroad as refugees and exiles, one of the largest diasporas in the world for a country of its size.
What are the highest and lowest points of Eritrea?
Emba Soira, 3,018 m (9,902 ft), in the highlands south of Asmara; and the Danakil Depression near Kulul in the south, 75 m (246 ft) below sea level — the northern end of the hottest inhabited place on earth, which runs into Ethiopia and Djibouti. Between them the escarpment drops 2,000 m from the plateau to the coastal desert in 60 km.
What currency does Eritrea use?
The nakfa (ISO code ERN, Nfk), named for the town of Nakfa in the Sahel mountains that the liberation front held through the war, introduced in 1997 to replace the Ethiopian birr and fixed at 15 to the U.S. dollar since 2005 — a rate far from the street. Clocks keep East Africa Time, UTC+3, all year.
Who governs Eritrea?
President Isaias Afwerki, the commander of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front, who has held power since independence on 24 May 1993 without ever facing an election: no national election has been held in the country's history, the constitution adopted in 1997 was never put into force, the National Assembly has not met since 2002, and the People's Front for Democracy and Justice is the only party allowed. The government rules through indefinite national service, holds the ministers and journalists arrested in 2001 without trial, and ranks at or near the bottom of every index of press freedom. Since 2025 it has faced Ethiopia's revived claim to the port of Assab, with troops massed on both sides of the border.
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