Eritrea is an African country located in northeast Africa. It is located on the coast of the Red Sea. Asmara is the capital of Eritrea. The country is bordered by Sudan, Ethiopia, and Djibouti. It is a small country with a total population of around 3 million. The country is home to multiple ethnic groups. Currently, around 9 ethnic groups have been recognized in the country. The country has 9 national languages and 3 working languages. The government of Eritrea is a one-party dictatorship. It is a small, unexplored country in the world. In this article, we will discuss some interesting facts about Eritrea. So, keep reading.

Eritrea Facts

1. Eritrea has the worst government’s human rights in the world

Eritrea is a one-party state where a single party has been ruling since independence. The legislative or presidential elections were never held in the country since independence. The Human Rights Watch said in a report that the government’s human rights in Eritrea are one of the worst in the world, an interesting Eritrea fact. People in Eritrea have no democratic freedom and no right to elect their rulers or administrators.

2. Eritrea has the worst press freedom

The people of Eritrea are not only oppressed by the government politically, they also have no access to the information. The people of Eritrea have no press freedom. All the media channels and enterprises in the country are state-owned. The people of the country are not allowed to express their views or ideas in general. According to the global Press Freedom Index, Eritrea has been ranked as the third-worst country in the world with respect to press freedom.

3. Eritrea remained a colony of Italian and British Empires

A fun fact about Eritrea is that it used to be a colony of Italy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1941, the British expelled the Italians through the Battle of Keren and took over the rule of Eritrea. Later, Eritrea was claimed by the government of Ethiopia as its territory in 1950.

4. Eritrea became an independent country as a result of an armed struggle

After the British rule, Eritrea was claimed by the feudal government of Ethiopia. In 1958, some students, professors and intellectuals of Eritrea started an independence movement. In 1961, an armed struggle for independence was waged in by the Eritrean Liberation Front leaders. The armed struggle went on for the consecutive thirty years till 1991 when Eritrean liberation forces defeated the Ethiopian forces. Eritrea was declared an independent state after a UN-supervised referendum in which the majority of the population voted for the establishment of an independent state.

5. Eritrea’s capital is known as New Rome

Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, is known as New Rome, an interesting fact about Eritrea. As Eritrea had been a colony of Italy for a long time, the Italian architectural style is seen in many of its old buildings. When the Mussolini took over Eritrea, he built several monumental structures in the capital city of Asmara. He wanted to make it a mini Rome or New Rome. More than 400 structures in the city have an Italian look. Because of these Italian structure, Asmara is also known as New Rome.

6. Eritrea has the oldest port of Africa

As mentioned earlier in this article, Eritrea is located on the coast of the Red Sea. The entire eastern border of the country is bounded by the Red Sea. This country has several important ports in it. The most important one is the port city of Adulis. This city was established in 100 AD. The establishment of this city provided the leading power in the Red Sea to the kingdom ruling Eritrea at that time.

7. Eritrea is a country with multiple National languages

As mentioned in the introductory paragraph, Eritrea is the country having 9 National languages. It must be surprising to know that there is no single official or working language in Eritrea. Instead, three languages are used as official languages in the country. These are Tigrinya, Arabic, and English.

8. The oldest hominid skull was found in Eritrea

Another interesting fact about Eritrea lies in the historical remains that were found in this country. One of the oldest known hominid skull was found by the archaeologists during their expedition in Eritrea. The skull had features of both Homo Sapiens or modern humans and Homo erectus. This skull is considered as important evidence of evolution as it describes the relations between modern humans and ancient hominids. In addition to this skull, an ancient complete skeleton with human traits was also discovered by anthropologists in Eritrea.

9. Women played a great role in freedom of Eritrea

Whenever we talk about the freedom or independence wars, we focus on the services and sacrifices of men. We always forget the role of women in all these wars. The women of Eritrea played a vital role in the independence of the country. They not only supported the warriors but also fought in the battlefield along with the men. An interesting fact about the independence war or Eritrea is that 30% of the warriors were women. With more than 30% of women freedom fighters, the independence movement of Eritrea is known as the greatest movement with maximum women participation. No other movement on this planet ever had this much women participation.

10. Eritrea name is derived from the Red Sea

Another interesting fact lies in the name of the country. The word Eritrea means red in Greek. The name is derived from the Greek word Erythraean, which was first used in 1890 when the Italians occupied this region.

Conclusion

Eritrea is a small underdeveloped country located in northeast Africa. The country got independence in 1993 after thirty years of freedom war with Ethiopia. The people of Eritrea have no freedom to speak or to elect their own government. The country’s capital is famous for its Italian style structures. The country has multiple National and official working languages. It is the place where one of the oldest known fossils were found by the scientists.

These are some of the interesting facts we discussed in our article. If you are interested, you should visit the Country Page!