Eritrea 2004

Eritrea People

Yearbook 2004

According to CountryAAH, the total population in Eritrea is 3,546,432 people in 2020. Eritrea became increasingly politically isolated during the year. The government refused to accept the UN envoy who would make new attempts to resolve the country’s border conflict with Ethiopia, as it suspected that a previous decision to give Eritrea a disputed border village would be torn down. The UN later accused the Eritrean authorities of harassing UN personnel. Amnesty International criticized diminished respect for human rights, including widespread application of torture, arbitrary arrests and persecution on religious grounds. The Swedish government refused to visit Swedish citizen Dawit Isaak, one of dozens of journalists who have been in prison without trial since the fall of 2001.

At the same time, the economic problems increased. During the fall, both gasoline and diesel were rationed due to the increased oil price. Continued drought for the fourth year also posed serious supply problems, and parts of the population became dependent on foreign food aid shipments. According to abbreviationfinder, ER stands for Eritrea in text.

Eritrea People

Demography and economic geography. – East African state. The last census made in Eritrea dates back to 1984, when the population stood at 2.748.304 residents.

In 2007, 4,577,000 were estimated, while in 2014 6,536,176, according to an estimate by UNDESA (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs), with growth sustained by a particularly high fertility rate, 4.14 children per woman. The population appears to be very young, with 61% having no more than 24 years and just 3.7% over 65, and an overall average age of 19.1 years. Only a small part (21.3%) live in urban areas, with the capital, Asmara, which in 2011 registered 712,000 residents, however a clear increase compared to 551,000 residents. in 2005. Life expectancy increased significantly between 2006 and 2014, from 59 to 62.9 years. The increase in the share of GDP destined for healthcare, which increased by almost one point, contributed significantly to this, bringing total expenditure to 2.6% (2012). Despite the investments, the situation, especially in rural areas, remains very difficult: 35% of children within the age of five are undernourished (seventh country in the world for incidence of the problem), while access to water is very difficult for about 40% of the population. Add to this the problem of human trafficking, of which Eritreans are victims.

Economic conditions. – The Eritrean economy is essentially based on subsistence and therefore the workforce is mainly employed in agriculture, livestock and fishing. Government investments to ensure coverage of domestic food needs have led to improvements, however not yet sufficient to allow the autonomy of Eritrea from the purchase of basic necessities and from international aid. The exploitation of mineral resources is only just beginning, entrusted to foreign companies that extract gold, copper and potassium; the possibilities for the development of Eritrea in the next years. Of some importance are the production of salt and cement in Massawa, while in Asmara there are important breweries.

History. – The country continued, in an uninterrupted spiral, that authoritarian involution which had already undergone an accentuation after the end of the war with Ethiopia (1998-2000) and which had been accompanied by a real militarization of society, so much so that one speaks of a state barracks or, according to the definition of Human Rights Watch, of “a gigantic prison”. On the one hand, in fact, the law, which imposed compulsory military service up to the age of fiftieth for men and 40 for women, translated into real forced labor; on the other hand, every form of opposition was crushed by an increasingly repressive regime, which, according to Amnesty International reports, held in its prisons, without trial, at least 10,000 politicians, journalists, religious leaders, conscientious objectors, ordinary citizens. The regime’s choices led to the flight of thousands of people, forced to undertake increasingly risky emigration routes, and pushed the country towards progressive international isolation. The United Nations Security Council, in 2009, accepting the requests of the African Union and the Intergovernmental Authority for Development, approved a package of sanctions as a response to the logistical support provided by Eritrea to the Islamic fundamentalist group al-Sha-baab which operated in Somalia, then escalated them in 2011. The United Nations Security Council, in 2009, accepting the requests of the African Union and the Intergovernmental Authority for Development, approved a package of sanctions as a response to the logistical support provided by Eritrea to the Islamic fundamentalist group al-Sha-baab which operated in Somalia, then escalated them in 2011. The United Nations Security Council, in 2009, accepting the requests of the African Union and the Intergovernmental Authority for Development, approved a package of sanctions as a response to the logistical support provided by Eritrea to the Islamic fundamentalist group al-Sha-baab which operated in Somalia, then escalated them in 2011.

The isolation of the country and the decision of the Eritrean government to gradually expel all the Western cooperation agencies further damaged an economy which was already structurally weak because it was largely linked to subsistence agriculture and weakened the incomes of families, who were also affected by a 2% tax on emigrant remittances, the so-called diaspora tax. Only with China Eritrea it increased its economic relations. Relations with Ethiopia remained difficult, accused by the government of repeated military incursions (2012, 2013).