Country profilesEritrea

Humanitarian profile

President Isaias Aferwerki has described aid organisations as “a collaboration of domestically corrupt special interest groups with international mafia”. Most aid agencies have been expelled, accused of spying, or left because of restrictions on their work, which must be implemented through local government structures. Humanitarian groups fear irregular rains cause widespread hunger and food shortages. In 2009, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation estimated that two in every three Eritreans were undernourished. However, travel restrictions make it hard to verify such estimates. The government says there is no hunger in Eritrea.

Country snapshot

Eritrea is a dictatorship and one of the poorest countries in the world. Civil rights and freedom of expression and assembly are absent.  The economy is controlled by the armed forces and the ruling party.

Government

The president, who is head of state, head of government and head of the National Assembly,  is elected by the National Assembly for a five-year term. The National Assembly’s 150 members are elected by direct popular vote for five year terms.  The People’s Front for Democracy and Justice is the sole party. Elections for the National Assembly and the presidency scheduled for 2001 have been postponed indefinitely.

Economy

The economy is based largely on agriculture which employs 80 percent of the population and accounts for about ten percent of GDP. The absence of modern equipment and techniques and a dependable water supply limit production. The main products are cotton, fruit, hides, pulses, cattle and sheep. There is a fishing industry and some pearl fisheries, which have existed since Roman times, remain in the Dahlak Archipelago. 

Many Eritreans work abroad and their remittances amount to over 30 percent of GDP. 

The industrial sector is confined to the production of food and beverages, clothing and textiles and building materials. Services such as transport and retailing account for about 60 percent of GDP. Natural resources include gold, potash, zinc and copper. Offshore oil exploration began in the 1990s but has yielded no significant results. 

War with Ethiopia cut economic growth to 1 percent in 1999 and shrank the economy about 10 percent in 2000.  A subsequent four year drought reduced already low food production capacity.

History

Eritrea was colonised by Italy in the 1880s and 1890s, which from there attempted to colonise Ethiopia in the 1930s.  Italian forces in Eritrea were defeated by Britain in 1941 which administered it as a United Nations trust territory after World War II.  In 1952 the U.N.  incorporated Eritrea as a federated part of Ethiopia despite the wishes of the population for independence. 

In 1962 Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia dissolved the Eritrean parliament and annexed the country. The struggle for independence was led by the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) in the 1960s, but in 1970 some members broke away to form the Eritrean Peoples Liberation Front (EPLF) led by Isaiah Afewerki. 

After Haile Selassie was overthrown in a coup in 1974 the ELF and the EPLF united to fight Ethiopian government forces and by 1976 had virtually driven them out of the country. But they were forced to return to sporadic guerrilla attacks in the late 1970s when, with large amounts of aid from the Soviet Union and Cuba, Ethiopia inflicted a series of heavy defeats. Fighting continued throughout the 1980s and by 1991, after the Soviet Union had withdrawn its support and supplies, the rebels controlled Eritrea. 

In 1993 a U.N.  supervised referendum resulted in a landslide vote for independence. Afewerki became president and the EPLF, renamed the People’s Front for Democracy and Justice,  the sole political organisation. 

War broke out again with Ethiopia between 1998 and 2000.  In 2001 15 PFDJ members publicly criticised Afewerki and called for the establishment of the rule of law. Eleven were arrested for treason and remain in secret detention. 

Human rights organisations are barred from the country, freedom of assembly is not recognised and there is no independent media. Eritreans under the age of 50 are rarely allowed to leave the country and written permission is often required for internal travel. Arbitrary arrest is common. Human Rights Watch has described the country as ‘a giant prison’.

Legal snapshot

The legal system is based on the Ethiopian legal code and for civil cases is based on Islamic law.  The judicial system, which consists of a High Court, regional, sub-regional and village courts, has never issued rulings significantly different from government positions.  Corruption used to be seen as relatively low but it has increased in recent years. The government’s control over foreign exchange gives it control over imports with the result that the regime’s favourites are allowed to smuggle goods into the country at great profit, says U.S.-funded watchdog Freedom House.