According to ehistorylib, in 2005, Eritrea had a population of 4.7 million people, largely consisting of nine ethnic groups. The main language spoken was Tigrinya, with Arabic and English as the official languages. The economy in 2005 was heavily reliant on agriculture and fishing, although the government was making efforts to diversify it. Remittances from abroad also played a significant role in the economy as did the mining sector, which focused on gold extraction. Foreign relations in 2005 were strained due to ongoing border disputes with Ethiopia as well as sanctions imposed by the United Nations for not complying with a 2002 peace agreement. Politically, Eritrea was an authoritarian state under President Isaias Afwerki who had been in power since 1993 following independence from Ethiopia. In 2005, all political opposition parties were banned and there were no independent media outlets operating in the country at this time.
Yearbook 2005
Eritrea. The extremely aid-dependent Eritrea was bewildered and troubled again by his devious attitude towards the outside world. Despite the UN’s alarm in June of a looming humanitarian crisis due to food shortages and low agricultural production as a result of drought and a permanent military readiness, authorities in the autumn sharply cut the distribution of food aid to the population. The intention was to reduce dependency on the outside world by building a system where work efforts would be paid with food rations. Foreign aid personnel feared that the food saved would be used to build up a military contingency camp in the event of a new war with Ethiopia. Eritrea was upset by Ethiopia’s refusal to approve the boundary set by an international commission, which largely met Eritrea’s wishes, and they were bitter that the outside world had not forced Ethiopia to bow. In October, in conjunction with information on troop contractions at the border, Eritrea banned the UN surveillance force from continuing its helicopter flights to the area. The UN Security Council threatened Eritrea with sanctions unless the ban was lifted, but Eritrea responded by expelling all European and North American observers.
In December, the Permanent Arbitration Court in The Hague ordered Eritrea to pay damages to Ethiopia for initiating the 1998–2000 war in violation of international law and the UN Charter. At the same time, Ethiopia was sentenced to replace Eritrea for assault on Eritrean civilians and destruction of Eritrean property during the war.
According to countryaah, Asmara is the capital and one of the major cities within the country of Eritrea. Swedish journalist Dawit Isaak remained imprisoned, despite sudden hints in November that he would be released. Isaak has been incarcerated without a sentence or investigation since the fall of 2001 along with about ten colleagues who tried to conduct a critical journalism.
- Also see abbreviationfinder.org for how the acronym ER stands for the country of Eritrea and other meanings of this two-letter abbreviation.
Legislative power is exercised by the Assembly, made up of fifty or sixty members, elected every four years by direct and indirect voting (the Constituent Assembly remained in office for the first four years); the laws are proposed by the members of the Assembly or the government. The Assembly also elects the head of government (Chief executive, a term also adopted in Tigrinya) with each new legislature, approves the budgets, checks the work of the government. The head of government is vested with extensive powers: he can issue laws during the holidays of the Assembly; appoints the Secretaries of the executive departments, responsible to him (in 1956 the departments were: internal affairs, finances, economics, social affairs, justice, state property). The organization of the departments is similar to that of the ministries of the West; administratively, the territory is divided into districts (English divisions ; in 1956 they were: Hamāsi̯ỹn, Särāyỹ, Akkälä ??? Guzāy, Kärä ??? n, Agordp̀t, Mar Rosso, with Massaua, Assab); municipal administrations are established in the main urban centers. Covering an area of 124,320 km 2the population was estimated in 1953 at about 1,020,000 residents.
