HAS BEEN within Ethiopia's sphere of influence for more than 3,000 years - but seven decades of Italian colonialism, combined with the authoritarianism of Ethiopia during the Cold War, have shaped its identity and determination and driven Eritrea into the longest African liberation war this century. When a small guerilla group rose in arms against the Ethiopian army, backed first by the United States then by the Soviet Union, nobody would ever have thought that three decades later Eritrea would be an independent state with its own currency, the Nakfa. Yet today Eritrea is a country of 3.5 million citizens, liberated by its own efforts from a country with more than 10 times its population after 30 years of war waged by a couple of thousand barefoot warriors against an army of 300,000 troops.
Death lies exposed in a dried river bed under the blazing Eritrean sun.
And, though it is still embattled, it is fighting a war against a different enemy - its own poverty. Being a poor and dry country prone to frequent droughts, Eritrea has had to rely heavily not only on foreign financial aid, but also on foreign food aid. In 1920, after four consecutive years of drought, the resulting famine caused the death of nearly one third of Eritrea's population. Neighbouring Sudan, Ethiopia and Yemen, and Saudi Arabia across the Red Sea, face the same extreme poverty. Without significant backing from a stronger and more economically stable country, Eritrea will have a hard time winning this latest war.