Politics

The politics of Eritrea takes place in a framework of a presidential republic, whereby the President of Eritrea is both head of state and head of government and a single-party state, led by the People's Front for Democracy and Justice. The National Assembly of 150 seats, formed in 1993 shortly after independence, elected the current president, Isaias Afewerki. The present government includes legislative, executive, and judicial bodies.

At independence, the government faced formidable challenges. Beginning with a nascent judicial system, and an education system in shambles, it has attempted to build the institutions of government from scratch, with varying success.

Independent local sources of political information on Eritrean domestic politics are scarce; in September 2001 the government closed down all of the nation's privately owned print media, and outspoken critics of the government have been arrested and held without trial, according to domestic and international observers, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. In 2004, the U.S. State Department declared Eritrea a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for its alleged record of religious persecution.

Foreign Relations

Eritrea is a member in good standing of the African Union (AU), the successor of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). However, it has withdrawn its representative to the AU in protest of their lack of leadership in facilitating the implementation of a binding border decision demarcating the border between Eritrea and Ethiopia.

Eritrea's relationship with the United States is complicated. Although the two nations have a close working relationship regarding the on-going war on terror, there has been a growing tension in other areas. Eritrea's relationship with Italy and the EU has become equally strained in many areas in the last three years.

Within the region, Eritrea's relations with Ethiopia turned from that of close alliance to a deadly rivalry that led to a war from May 1998 to June 2000 in which 19,000 Eritreans were killed. As a result, the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) is occupying a 25 km by 900 km area on the border to help stabilise the region. Disagreements following the war have resulted in stalemate punctuated by periods of elevated tension and renewed threats of war.

Other external issues include an undemarcated border with Sudan and a disagreement with Yemen over the Hanish Islands in 1996 that resulted in a brief war.