The 2004 CIA World Factbook. United States. Central Intelligence Agency
Airports - with paved runways:
total: 3
2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
less than 914 m: 1 (2004 est.)
Airports - with unpaved runways:
total: 1
under 914 m: 1 (2004 est.)
Military Equatorial Guinea
Military branches:
Army, Navy, Air Force, Rapid Intervention Force
Military manpower - military age and obligation:
18 years of age (est.) (2004)
Military manpower - availability:
males age 15–49: 120,463 (2004 est.)
Military manpower - fit for military service:
males age 15–49: 61,084 (2004 est.)
Military expenditures - dollar figure:
$75.1 million (2003)
Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
2.5% (2003)
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 a dispute between Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon over an
island at the mouth of the Ntem River, imprecisely defined
coordinates in the ICJ decision, and the unresolved Bakasi
allocation contribute to the delay in implementation; creation of a
maritime boundary in hydrocarbon-rich Corisco Bay with Gabon is
hampered by dispute over Mbane Island, administered and occupied by
Gabon since the 1970s
This page was last updated on 10 February, 2005
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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 a 25 km-wide Temporary
Security Zone on the border with Ethiopia. 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: 4.95% permanent crops: 0.03% other: 95.02% (2001)
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:
4,447,307 (July 2004 est.)
Age structure:
0–14 years: 44.8% (male 998,404; female 993,349)
15–64 years: 51.9% (male 1,140,892; female 1,166,481)
65 years and over: 3.3% (male 72,776; female 75,405) (2004 est.)
Median age:
total: 17.5 years
male: 17.3 years
female: 17.7 years (2004 est.)
Population growth rate:
2.57% (2004 est.)
Birth rate:
39.03 births/1,000 population (2004 est.)
Death rate:
13.36 deaths/1,000 population (2004 est.)
Net migration rate:
0 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