Eritrea

A country that fought thirty years for independence and has held no election since. The Red Sea coast was part of the Aksumite world, then Ottoman and Egyptian, before Italy made it a colony in 1890 and used it as the base for both invasions of Ethiopia. Italian rule built Asmara's modernist architecture, now a World Heritage site, and a railway through the mountains. Britain administered the territory after 1941 and the United Nations federated it with Ethiopia in 1950, partly at American urging over the Kagnew signals station, giving Eritrea its own parliament and flag. Haile Selassie dismantled that federation piece by piece and annexed the territory outright in 1962. The war that answer produced ran for thirty years, with the EPLF fighting a conventional army in trenches and running its own clinics and schools in liberated areas, and ended in 1991. Independence was confirmed by referendum in 1993. A border war with Ethiopia from 1998 to 2000 killed tens of thousands over a small town. Indefinite national service has driven very large emigration. Isaias Afwerki has governed since 1991. Asmara is the capital. The country has about 3.5 million people and nine recognised ethnic groups. Tigrinya, Arabic and English are used officially. Its Red Sea coast runs about a thousand kilometres and includes the Dahlak archipelago. There is no privately owned press. The country is sometimes called the North Korea of Africa by its critics. Its diaspora is one of the largest in the world relative to population.

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