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
Climate
Hot dry desert strip along Red Sea coast; cooler and wetter in the central highlands (up to 61 cm of rainfall annually heaviest June to September); semiarid in western hills and lowlands
Natural Hazards
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
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
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 in December 2000. Eritrea hosted a UN peacekeeping operation that monitored a 25 km-wide Temporary Security Zone (TSZ) on the border with Ethiopia. Eritrea's denial of fuel to the mission caused the UN to withdraw the mission and terminate its mandate 31 July 2008. An international commission organized to resolve the border dispute posted its findings in 2002. However both parties have been unable to reach agreement on implementing the decision. On 30 November 2007 the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission remotely demarcated the border by coordinates and dissolved itself leaving Ethiopia still occupying several tracts of disputed territory including the town of Badme. Eritrea accepted the EEBC's "virtual demarcation" decision and called on Ethiopia to remove its troops from the TSZ which it states is Eritrean territory. Ethiopia has not accepted the virtual demarcation decision. Read more on Wikipedia
