Eritrea

The struggle

Italy's colony from 1890, Eritrea was federated with Ethiopia by the United Nations in 1952 and annexed outright ten years later. A thirty-year liberation war followed, in which the EPLF ran schools, hospitals and workshops underground and women made up a third of its fighters. Asmara fell in 1991 and a referendum confirmed independence on 24 May 1993.

Key people

• Hamid Idris Awate

  1910–1962

  Fired the first shot of the armed struggle in 1961

• Isaias Afwerki

  born 1946

  Led the EPLF; first president

• Ibrahim Sultan Ali

  1909–1987

  Founded the Muslim League and the independence bloc