As I get ready to go to Ethiopia it seems appropriate to reflect on my travels through it’s neighbour, Eritrea in April 2009.
To say neighbour is perhaps to put too friendly a connotation on the relationship between these two countries. Eritrea is for the moment Africa’s newest country. It became independent in 1993 after a bloody 30 year long civil war with Ethiopia. After a brief honeymoon both countries appeared to be working together. But a brief but bitterly fought border war has turned into a paralysing frozen conflict.
Eritrea has only a tiny land border with Djibouti which is open and a near derelict port providing access to global trade. With access severely curtailed I was fascinated to visit such an isolated and little spoken of corner of the World.
To say neighbour is perhaps to put too friendly a connotation on the relationship between these two countries. Eritrea is for the moment Africa’s newest country. It became independent in 1993 after a bloody 30 year long civil war with Ethiopia. After a brief honeymoon both countries appeared to be working together. But a brief but bitterly fought border war has turned into a paralysing frozen conflict.
Eritrea has only a tiny land border with Djibouti which is open and a near derelict port providing access to global trade. With access severely curtailed I was fascinated to visit such an isolated and little spoken of corner of the World.
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