The 2003 CIA World Factbook. United States. Central Intelligence Agency
expenditures - dollar figure:
$30 million (FY02)
Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
2.5% (FY02)
Transnational Issues Equatorial Guinea
Disputes - international:
in 2002, ICJ ruled on an equidistance settlement of
Cameroon-Equatorial Guinea-Nigeria maritime boundary in the Gulf of
Guinea, but states have not yet agreed to abide by the decision;
creation of a maritime boundary in hydrocarbon-rich Corisco Bay with
Gabon is hampered by dispute over small islets on Mbane/Mbagne bank,
administered and occupied by Gabon since the 1970s
This page was last updated on 18 December, 2003
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@Eritrea
Introduction Eritrea
Background:
Eritrea was awarded to Ethiopia in 1952 as part of a federation.
Ethiopia's annexation of Eritrea as a province 10 years later
sparked a 30-year struggle for independence that ended in 1991 with
Eritrean rebels defeating governmental forces; independence was
overwhelmingly approved in a 1993 referendum. A two-and-a-half-year
border war with Ethiopia that erupted in 1998 ended under UN
auspices on 12 December 2000. Eritrea currently hosts a UN
peacekeeping operation that is monitoring the border region. An
international commission, organized to resolve the border dispute,
posted its findings in 2002 but final demarcation is on hold due to
Ethiopian objections.
Geography Eritrea
Location:
Eastern Africa, bordering the Red Sea, between Djibouti and Sudan
Geographic coordinates:
15 00 N, 39 00 E
Map references:
Africa
Area:
total: 121,320 sq km
water: 0 sq km
land: 121,320 sq km
Area - comparative:
slightly larger than Pennsylvania
Land boundaries:
total: 1,626 km
border countries: Djibouti 109 km, Ethiopia 912 km, Sudan 605 km
Coastline:
2,234 km total; mainland on Red Sea 1,151 km, islands in Red Sea
1,083 km
Maritime claims:
territorial sea: 12 NM
Climate:
hot, dry desert strip along Red Sea coast; cooler and wetter in the
central highlands (up to 61 cm of rainfall annually); semiarid in
western hills and lowlands; rainfall heaviest during June-September
except in coastal desert
Terrain:
dominated by extension of Ethiopian north-south trending highlands,
descending on the east to a coastal desert plain, on the northwest
to hilly terrain and on the southwest to flat-to-rolling plains
Elevation extremes:
lowest point: near Kulul within the Denakil depression −75 m
highest point: Soira 3,018 m
Natural resources:
gold, potash, zinc, copper, salt, possibly oil and natural gas, fish
Land use: arable land: 3.87% permanent crops: 0.02% other: 96.11% (1998 est.)
Irrigated land:
220 sq km (1998 est.)
Natural hazards:
frequent droughts; locust swarms
Environment - current issues:
deforestation; desertification; soil erosion; overgrazing; loss of
infrastructure from civil warfare
Environment - international agreements:
party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered
Species
signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements
Geography - note:
strategic geopolitical position along world's busiest shipping
lanes; Eritrea retained the entire coastline of Ethiopia along the
Red Sea upon de jure independence from Ethiopia on 24 May 1993
People Eritrea
Population:
4,362,254 (July 2003 est.)
Age structure:
0–14 years: 44.7% (male 977,447; female 972,068)
15–64 years: 52% (male 1,121,077; female 1,147,109)
65 years and over: 3.3% (male 71,620; female 72,933) (2003 est.)
Median age:
total: 17.6 years
male: 17.4 years
female: 17.7 years (2002)
Population growth rate:
1.28% (2003 est.)
Birth rate:
39.44 births/1,000 population (2003 est.)
Death rate:
13.23 deaths/1,000 population (2003 est.)
Net migration rate:
−13.38 migrant(s)/1,000 population
note: UNHCR began repatriating about 150,000 Eritrean refugees from
Sudan in 2001 following the restoration of diplomatic relations
between the two countries in 2000 (2003 est.)
Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
15–64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.98 male(s)/female
total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2003 est.)
Infant mortality rate:
total: 76.32 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 68.64 deaths/1,000 live births (2003 est.)
male: 83.78 deaths/1,000 live births
Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 53.18 years
male: 51.48 years
female: 54.92 years (2003 est.)
Total fertility rate:
5.74 children born/woman (2003 est.)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
2.8% (2001 est.)
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
55,000 (2001 est.)
HIV/AIDS - deaths: