Eritrea Marks Independence Anniversary
Independence Day on 24 May commemorates the end of a thirty-year war and the founding of the state.
11 Aug 2026·11 Aug 2026
Country
A Red Sea state that became independent from Ethiopia in 1993 after a thirty-year war. Eritrea holds roughly a thousand kilometres of coastline and the ports of Massawa and Assab, and its capital Asmara is a UNESCO World Heritage site for its modernist architecture.
Regions of Eritrea
A narrow strait at the bottom of the Red Sea shapes the economics and the security policy of all four countries in the Horn. Here is how.
From the krar and the wata to the brass-heavy sound of Asmara's mid-century clubs, Eritrean music is finding new audiences through diaspora venues and streaming.
Solar mini-grids reach settlements that a national transmission network will not reach for years.
Every serious question in Horn diplomacy now runs through one problem: how a country of more than a hundred and twenty million reaches the sea.
A generation trained abroad is returning to build the systems the region runs on.
Gold, copper, zinc and potash in the Arabian-Nubian Shield make mining the country's principal source of foreign exchange.
A timeline of the relationship that has done more than any other to shape the modern Horn.
Asmara's modernist architecture, the Dahlak archipelago and the ruins at Adulis are the assets. Access is the constraint.
Rainfall failure does not respect borders, and neither does the displacement that follows it.
Nine recognised ethnic groups, nine distinct traditions, one festival calendar.
The Horn's own regional body has mediated some of Africa's hardest conflicts. Its structural weakness is that its members are frequently parties to them.