ERITREA

Area

117.600 Kmq

Mortalità infantile

77 per 1.000

(Fonts - population, annual growth, life expectancy, infant mortality, imports and exports: The World Factbook 2000, www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook - GNP per capita: UNDP, Human Development Report 2000, Oxford 2000 - other infos: Instituto del Tercer Mundo, Guya del mondo 1999/2000, Montevideo 1999) www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook

HISTORY

The history of this country is inseparable from that of Ethiopia. In 1950, the UN proclaimed Eritrea a federal state of the Ethiopian empire. The actions of the pro-independence guerrilla began from the early 1960s and the war that followed caused tens of thousands of victims on both sides. In 1960 the Popular Liberation Front of Eritrea conquered much of the Eritrean territory and from 1991 Asmara and Addis Abeba started up political and diplomatic relations like two states. In 1993 Eritrea became an independent state through a referendum with 99.8% of votes in favour of independence. Eritrea, lying in the Horn of Africa, in its arid and torrid plain, is inhabited mainly by nomadic herders. The Eritrean people say they belong to the same Semitic branch as the Arabs and as such are recognized by the Arab League, which accepted the country as a member of the organization. There are nine main ethnic groups in Eritrea: Tigrigna, Tigrč, Bilen, Afar, Saho, Kunama, Nara, Hidareb and Rashaida. The majority of the population consist of herders or farmers and only 16.3% work in the towns. The land in this country represents real wealth and the tradition and administration of power is based on the land: the system that organizes and manages land ownership is at the base of the social structure of the Eritrean people. The majority of the population are Coptic Christians, whilst the remainder are Muslim with Catholic and Protestant minorities.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

GAYIM E., The Eritrean question : the conflict between the right of self- determination and the interests of States, Uppsala : Iustus 1993

CALCHI NOVATI, Il corno d'Africa nella STORY e nella politica, Torino: Sei 1994

SEMPLICI A., Eritrea, Milano : ClupGuide 1994

NEGASH T., Brothers at war : making sense of the Eritrean-Ethiopian war, Oxford : J. Currey 2000

D'ANGELO, Eritrea guida storico-politica, Datanews 2000

Eritrean Network Information Center(ENIC)

MUSIC

SIBHATU R., Aulo : canto-poesia dall'Eritrea, Roma : Sinnos 1993

ITALIAN NGO IN ERITREA

GMA, MANI TESE, VISBA, COME NOI, UPD, AIFO, SENIORES, COSV