• Officially known as the State of Eritrea
• Located in the Horn of Africa; capital city is Asmara
• Bordered by Ethiopia, Sudan, and Djibouti; has a coastline along the Red Sea
• Total area is about 117,600 km²; includes Dahlak Archipelago and Hanish Islands

• Hominid remains suggest human evolution presence for 1 million years
• Kingdom of Aksum, a major historical empire, established in 1st-2nd century AD
• Christianity adopted in the 4th century
• Controlled by Zagwe and Solomonid dynasties from the 12th century
• Ottoman failure to conquer highlands led to peace treaty limiting them to the coast

• Coastal areas passed to Egyptian control in 1865, then to Italy in 1885
• Italian Eritrea formed in 1889; lasted until 1942
• British Military Administration followed WWII; federal union with Ethiopia from 1952
• Ethiopia annexed Eritrea in 1962; the Eritrean Liberation Front formed in 1961
• Eritrea gained independence in 1993 after a referendum

• Multi-ethnic country with nine recognized ethnic groups
• Notable languages include Tigrinya, Arabic, and English; Tigrinya is the most spoken
• Unitary one-party presidential republic under Isaias Afwerki since 1993
• Human rights concerns exist; Eritrea is part of the African Union and UN
• Asmara was designated a World Heritage Site in 2017 for its architecture

List of Popular Newspapers published in Eritrea.