Eastern Africa · ERI

Eritrea

The story · 9 chapters

How it was drawn

A Red Sea land shaped by D'mt and Aksum, Ottoman and Egyptian ports and Italian rule, annexed by Ethiopia and independent since 1993 after a thirty year war.

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Through the ages

Rivals in history

The kingdoms, empires and states Eritrea fought or stood against, from the first to today.

Himyarite Kingdom518 to 525
Aksum's King Kaleb sends an army across the Red Sea around 525 to overthrow the Himyarite king Dhu Nuwas, who had persecuted the Christians of Najran. Aksumite generals then rule Yemen for decades.
Adal Sultanate1529 to 1543
Adal's leader Imam Ahmad, called Gragn, overruns the Ethiopian highlands, including Medri Bahri, from 1529. His forces are defeated and he is killed in 1543 by Ethiopian troops aided by Portuguese musketeers.
Ottoman Empire1557 to 1865
The Ottomans seize Massawa in 1557 and found the province of Habesh. They push into the highlands but are soon confined to the coast, which they hold, with interruptions, for three centuries.
Khedivate of Egypt1865 to 1885
Egypt takes over Massawa and pushes inland, aiming to control the Red Sea coast and the highlands. Ethiopian armies crush Egyptian invasions at Gundet in 1875 and Gura in 1876, and Egypt withdraws in 1885.
Kingdom of Italy1885 to 1941
Italy seizes Massawa in 1885, loses a column to Ras Alula at Dogali in 1887, and rules Eritrea from 1890, recruiting tens of thousands of Eritrean askari. British forces end its rule after the battle of Keren in 1941.
Mahdist State1885 to 1894
Sudan's Mahdist forces raid the western lowlands. Italian colonial troops, many of them Eritrean askari, defeat the Mahdists at Agordat in December 1893 and take Kassala in 1894.
Ethiopia1961 to 1991
After Ethiopia dismantles the federation, Eritrean fighters take up arms in 1961. The war lasts thirty years, ending in May 1991 when the Eritrean People's Liberation Front takes Asmara as Ethiopia's Derg regime collapses.
Yemen1995 to 1998
Eritrea and Yemen fight over the Hanish Islands in the Red Sea in December 1995. An international arbitration tribunal awards most of the islands to Yemen in 1998, and both accept the decision.
Ethiopia1998 to 2018
A dispute over Badme becomes a war in 1998 that kills tens of thousands. A 2002 boundary ruling gives Badme to Eritrea, but Ethiopia accepts it only in 2018, when the two make peace.
DjiboutiSince 2008Still open
Eritrean and Djiboutian troops clash at Ras Doumeira in June 2008. Qatari mediation from 2010 ends in 2017 when Qatar withdraws its peacekeepers, and the border dispute remains unresolved.
EthiopiaSince 2023Still open
After the Tigray war, relations sour again. From 2023 Ethiopia's leaders call access to the Red Sea an existential need, which Eritrea sees as a threat to its sovereignty and its ports.

Today

Eritrea now

Eritrea won independence from Italian colonial control in 1941, but the UN only established it as an autonomous region within the Ethiopian federation in 1952, after a decade of British administrative control. Ethiopia's full annexation of Eritrea as a province 10 years later sparked a violent 30-year conflict for independence that ended in 1991 with Eritrean fighters defeating government forces. Eritreans overwhelmingly approved independence in a 1993 referendum.

Capital: Asmara
Government: authoritarian
Head of government: Isaias Afwerki
Languages: Arabic, English, Tigrinya
Area: 121,630 km²

Through time

Then and now

Population3.5 million2023 · 814,900 in 1950
Life expectancy68.6 years2023 · 33.3 years in 1950
Living in cities35%2025 · 7% in 1950
Literacy65%2008 · 3% in 1950
Political regimeClosed autocracy2025 · Closed autocracy in 1950
Military alliancesNone of these2024 · None of these in 1950
Military spending20.9% of GDP2003
War deathsNone2025

Population: HYDE 3.3, Gapminder and UN WPP. GDP per capita: Maddison Project Database 2023. Urban share: UN WPP. Life expectancy: Riley, HMD, UN WPP. Literacy: OWID historical estimates, World Bank, UNESCO. Military spending: SIPRI. War deaths: UCDP. Political regime: V-Dem, Regimes of the World. All via Our World in Data (CC BY 4.0). Alliances and organization memberships: compiled by Atlas. Satellites in orbit: CelesTrak SATCAT. Modern borders, backcast.

Relations

Close partners and tensions

Close partners

Djibouti
Saudi Arabia

Summarised from World Bank and Wikipedia data, updated 23 October 2026.

Rivals in history

The kingdoms, empires and states Eritrea fought or stood against, from the first to today.

Himyarite Kingdom518 to 525

Aksum's King Kaleb sends an army across the Red Sea around 525 to overthrow the Himyarite king Dhu Nuwas, who had persecuted the Christians of Najran. Aksumite generals then rule Yemen for decades.

Adal Sultanate1529 to 1543

Adal's leader Imam Ahmad, called Gragn, overruns the Ethiopian highlands, including Medri Bahri, from 1529. His forces are defeated and he is killed in 1543 by Ethiopian troops aided by Portuguese musketeers.

Ottoman Empire1557 to 1865

The Ottomans seize Massawa in 1557 and found the province of Habesh. They push into the highlands but are soon confined to the coast, which they hold, with interruptions, for three centuries.

Khedivate of Egypt1865 to 1885

Egypt takes over Massawa and pushes inland, aiming to control the Red Sea coast and the highlands. Ethiopian armies crush Egyptian invasions at Gundet in 1875 and Gura in 1876, and Egypt withdraws in 1885.

Kingdom of Italy1885 to 1941

Italy seizes Massawa in 1885, loses a column to Ras Alula at Dogali in 1887, and rules Eritrea from 1890, recruiting tens of thousands of Eritrean askari. British forces end its rule after the battle of Keren in 1941.

Mahdist State1885 to 1894

Sudan's Mahdist forces raid the western lowlands. Italian colonial troops, many of them Eritrean askari, defeat the Mahdists at Agordat in December 1893 and take Kassala in 1894.

Ethiopia1961 to 1991

After Ethiopia dismantles the federation, Eritrean fighters take up arms in 1961. The war lasts thirty years, ending in May 1991 when the Eritrean People's Liberation Front takes Asmara as Ethiopia's Derg regime collapses.

Yemen1995 to 1998

Eritrea and Yemen fight over the Hanish Islands in the Red Sea in December 1995. An international arbitration tribunal awards most of the islands to Yemen in 1998, and both accept the decision.

Ethiopia1998 to 2018

A dispute over Badme becomes a war in 1998 that kills tens of thousands. A 2002 boundary ruling gives Badme to Eritrea, but Ethiopia accepts it only in 2018, when the two make peace.

DjiboutiSince 2008Still open

Eritrean and Djiboutian troops clash at Ras Doumeira in June 2008. Qatari mediation from 2010 ends in 2017 when Qatar withdraws its peacekeepers, and the border dispute remains unresolved.

EthiopiaSince 2023Still open

After the Tigray war, relations sour again. From 2023 Ethiopia's leaders call access to the Red Sea an existential need, which Eritrea sees as a threat to its sovereignty and its ports.

Eritrea now

Capital

Asmara

Government

authoritarian

Head of government

Isaias Afwerki

Languages

Arabic, English, Tigrinya

Area

121,630 km²

Then and now

Population3.5 million2023 · 814,900 in 1950

Life expectancy68.6 years2023 · 33.3 years in 1950

Living in cities35%2025 · 7% in 1950

Literacy65%2008 · 3% in 1950

Political regimeClosed autocracy2025 · Closed autocracy in 1950

Military alliancesNone of these2024 · None of these in 1950

Military spending20.9% of GDP2003

War deathsNone2025