Eritrea ( Ertra) is a country in Eastern Africa, bordering the Red Sea, between Djibouti and Sudan. Eritrea geographic coordinates 15 00 N, 39 00 E; area 121,320 sq km; area comparative slightly larger than Pennsylvania; land boundaries Djibouti 109 km, Ethiopia 912 km, Sudan 605 km; coastline 2,234 km total; mainland on Red Sea 1,151 km, islands in Red Sea; maritime claims 12 nm; climate hot, dry desert strip along Red Sea coast; cooler and wetter in the central highlands (up to 61 cm o; terrain dominated by extension of Ethiopian north-south trending highlands, descending on the east to a coas; elevation extremes Soir; natural resources gold, potash, zinc, copper, salt, possibly oil and natural gas, fish; land use 95.02% (2001); irrigated land 220 sq km (1998 est.); natural hazards frequent droughts; locust swarms; environment current issues deforestation; desertification; soil erosion; overgrazing; loss of infrastructure from civil warfare; environment international agreements none of the selected agreements; geography note strategic geopolitical position along world's busiest shipping lanes; Eritrea retained the entire coastline of Ethiopia along the Red Sea upon de jure independence from Ethiopia on 24 May 1993;

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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 on 12 December 2000. Eritrea currently hosts a UN peacekeeping operation that is monitoring a 25 km-wide Temporary Security Zone on the border with Ethiopia. An international commission, organized to resolve the border dispute, posted its findings in 2002 but final demarcation is on hold due to Ethiopian objections. government type transitional government following a successful referendum on independence for the Autonomous Region of Eritrea on 23-25 April 1993,; capital Asmara; administrative divisions 6 regions (zobatat, singular - zoba); Anseba, Debub (Southern), Debubawi K'eyih Bahri (Southern Red Sea), Gash Barka, Ma'akel (Central), Semenawi Keyih Bahri (Northern Red Sea); independence 24 May 1993 (from Ethiopia); national holiday Independence Day, 24 May (1993); constitution the transitional constitution, decreed on 19 May 1993, was replaced by a new constitution adopted on 23 May 1997, but not yet implemented; legal system primary basis is the Ethiopian legal code of 1957, with revisions; new civil, commercial, and penal codes have not yet been promulgated; also relies on customary and post-independence-enacted laws and, for civil cases involving Muslims, Sharia law; suffrage 18 years of age; universal;

people

Eritrea population 4,561,599 (July 2005 est.); age structure 3.3% (male 74,312/female 78,436) (2005 est.); median age 17.73 years (2005 est.); population growth rate 2.51% (2005 est.); birth rate 38.62 births/1,000 population (2005 est.); death rate 13.53 deaths/1,000 population (2005 est.); net migration rate 0 migrant(s)/1,000 population UNHCR began repatriating about 150,000 Eritrean ref; sex ratio 0.99 male(s)/female (2005 est.); infant mortality rate 82.28 deaths/1,000 live births; life expectancy at birth 53.22 years (2005 est.); total fertility rate 5.61 children born/woman (2005 est.); hiv adult rate 2.7% (2003 est.); hiv people with aids 60,000 (2003 est.); hiv deaths 6,300 (2003 est.); major infectious diseases malaria is a high risk in some locations (2004); nationality Eritrean; ethnic groups ethnic Tigrinya 50%, Tigre and Kunama 40%, Afar 4%, Saho (Red Sea coast dwellers) 3%, other 3%; religions Muslim, Coptic Christian, Roman Catholic, Protestant; languages Afar, Arabic, Tigre and Kunama, Tigrinya, other Cushitic languages; literacy 47.6% (2003 est.);

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