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On May 24, 1991 Eritrea’s long struggle against Ethiopian hegemony ended with the liberation of Eritrea. Two years later, on May 24, 1993, Eritrea declared it’s de jure independence with the internationally supervised referendum of April 1993 and emerged as Africa’s youngest and fiftysecond nation state. Eritrea is located in Northeast Africa, bordered on the North and West by the Sudan, on the South by Ethiopia, on the Southeast by Djibouti, and on the East by the Red Sea. It covers a total area of 124,323 square kilometers, including its over 350 islands. According to a report by UN data 2009, its population is 5.1 million. 1

Eritrea's emergence as a new state in Northeast Africa is a result of a long and complex political and military struggle. In many African countries European colonial rule came to an end with the independence of the former colonies and the 1950s witnessed the emergence of free African states. In Eritrea, unlike the cases in much of Africa, this happened earlier but in a different fashion. This come about when in 1941, as part of World War II, the Allied Forces defeated the Italians in Eritrea. While many African countries gained their independence in the 1950s, Eritrea missed its decolonization. Following the collapse of Italian colonial rule in Eritrea, Ethiopia claimed the territory as part of its kingdom that was taken by the Italians during the late 19 th century European colonial expansion. The aspiration of Eritrean modern and traditional elites in the period poles apart ranging from a claim for complete independence to union with Ethiopia. In December 1950, after a decade long local and international political struggle over its future …