Eritrea: Background & Geography
| Introduction | Eritrea |
|
Background:
|
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. |
| Geography | Eritrea |
|
Location:
|
Eastern Africa, bordering the Red Sea, between Djibouti and Sudan |
|
Geographic coordinates:
|
15 00 N, 39 00 E |
|
Map references:
|
Africa |
|
Area:
|
total: 121,320 sq km
water: 0 sq km land: 121,320 sq km |
|
Area - comparative:
|
slightly larger than Pennsylvania |
|
Land boundaries:
|
total: 1,626 km
border countries: 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 1,083 km |
|
Maritime claims - as described in UNCLOS 1982 (see Notes and Definitions):
|
territorial sea: 12 NM |
|
Climate:
|
hot, dry desert strip along Red Sea coast; cooler and wetter in the central highlands (up to 61 cm of rainfall annually); semiarid in western hills and lowlands; rainfall heaviest during June-September except in coastal desert |
|
Terrain:
|
dominated by extension of Ethiopian north-south trending highlands, descending on the east to a coastal desert plain, on the northwest to hilly terrain and on the southwest to flat-to-rolling plains |
|
Elevation extremes:
|
lowest point: near Kulul within the Denakil depression -75 m
highest point: Soira 3,018 m |
|
Natural resources:
|
gold, potash, zinc, copper, salt, possibly oil and natural gas, fish |
|
Land use:
|
arable land: 3.87%
permanent crops: 0.02% other: 96.11% (1998 est.) |
|
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:
|
party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species
signed, but not ratified: 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 |