SUMMARY

[Note to reader: this Country page primarily contains brief information about state-based violence during the period 1946–1974, and to some extent 1975–1988. For more detailed information on organized violence after 1989, please consult the specific Conflict and Dyad pages available on the left-hand side of this page. These pages contain more detailed information regarding all three categories of organized violence in this country from 1989 and onwards (when applicable), as well as detailed information about state-based violence 1975–1988. The left-hand side menu also contains links to Actor pages for all groups involved in organized violence since 1989 in this country, as well as actors involved in state-based violence 1975–1988.]

Eritrea became independent from Ethiopia in 1993. For information on the armed conflict between the government of Ethiopia and the EPLF, see Ethiopia–Eritrea conflict.

After a thirty-year long armed independence struggle Eritrea seceded from Ethiopia in 1993 (for more information, see Ethiopia's country page). The short history of independent Eritrea has been marred by both inter-state and intra-state conflicts.

In the immediate years following independence Eritrea–Ethiopia relations were good largely due to the rapport developed during the 30 years that the later-to-become ruling parties of both countries jointly fought the Ethiopian dictatorship of Mengistu Hailemariam. However, in 1997 the relationship quickly deteriorated over divergent economic policies and an ambiguous common border; the latter came to serve as the pretext for the ensuing 1998–2000 inter-state war between the neighbors. The comprehensive peace agreement which ended the conflict was signed in December 2000.

A low-intensity intra-state conflict between the EIJM – AS (Harakat al Jihad al Islami - Abu Suhail faction, Eritrean Islamic Jihad Movement – Abu Suhail faction) and the government reached the level of a minor conflict in 1997. The group’s aim has been to oust the Eritrean regime of President Issayas Afewerki and the ruling People's Front for Democracy and Justice and replace it with an Islamic government.

In the summer of 2008 Eritrea was involved in fatal clashes over territory with its southern neighbor Djibouti. The unresolved border demarcation issue underpinning the conflict dates back to the map-drawing of colonial times and has caused confrontation between the two countries on two previous occasions, in 1996 and in 1999.

Since 1946 Eritrea has experienced the inter-state and intra-state categories of UCDP organised violence.