FACTS
A country of northeast Africa bordering on the Red Sea. Once part of the Ethiopian kingdom of Aksum, it became an Italian colony in 1890 and was named after the Roman term for the Red Sea, Mare erythraeum. Captured by the British during World War II, Eritrea later became a federated part (1952) and then a province (1962) of Ethiopia, from which it gained its independence in 1993. Asmara is the capital and largest city. Population: 4,910,000.(Answers.com)
The people
Language groups
Eritrea's population consists of several ethnic groups, each with its own language and cultural tradition. The Eritrean highlands are an extension of the Ethiopian Plateau to the south, and the bulk of the peasantry on the plateau belong to the Tigray, a group that also occupies the adjacent Ethiopian province of Tigray. The Tigrayan language, called Tigrinya, is spoken on both sides of the border and is the speech of nearly one-half of all Eritreans.(Britannica.com)