Factfile on Eritrea

ASMARA, April 11 (AFP) - Eritrea was annexed by Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie in 1962, unleashing a war that lasted three decades and cost 80,000 lives.

In 1991, the Eritrean People's Liberation Front, fighting alongside the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, toppled the dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam, and Eritrea gained independence in 1993.

Five years later, a two-and-a-half year border war erupted with Ethiopia, ending in late 2000.

Eritrea has been led by Issaias Afeworki since indpendence.

- GEOGRAPHY: Eritrea is located in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Ethiopia, Djibouti and Sudan. It covers some 121,000 square kilometers (48,500 square miles), with a 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) coastline along one of the world's busiest shipping lanes on the Red Sea.

- POPULATION: Around four million. Nine ethnic groups.

- RELIGION: Evenly divided between Christians and Muslims.

- CAPITAL: Asmara.

- LANGUAGE: Tigrinya and Arabic are the most widely spoken languages of the nine officially recognised in the constitution.

- HISTORY:  Eritrea was an Italian colony from 1889 to 1941, when it became a British protectorate after Italy was defeated in World War II's east Africa campaign. In 1952, it was awarded to Ethiopia as part of a federation, and 10 years later, emperor Haile Selassie annexed Eritrea as a province.

The annexation sparked a 30-year struggle for independence that ended in 1991 when Eritrean rebels, fighting alongside the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, toppled the dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam. The 30-year liberation struggle was one of Africa's longest and claimed some 80,000 lives.

On May 23, 1993, Eritrea officially gained independence from Ethiopia following a referendum overwhelmingly backing the move.

A new constitution was adopted in May 1997. The country is governed under a presidential regime, with the head of state, who has wide-ranging powers, elected by parliament.

War broke out with Ethiopia in May 1998 over the two countries' border in the region around Badme, southwest of Asmara. A ceasefire  agreement signed in June 2000 in Algiers ended hostilities, and peace was formalised in a UN-brokered accord signed in December 2000, also in the Algerian capital.

- ECONOMY: Eritrea is one of the world's poorest countries, with an economy based on subsistence farming. Eighty percent of the population is involved in agriculture and herding. A small industrial sector consists mainly of light industries with outdated technologies. The long independence struggle and the border war with Ethiopia have left the infrastructure in ruins.

In 1997, Asmara created its own currency, the nakfa, to replace the Ethiopian currency.

+ PER CAPITA GNP: 200 dollars in 1999 (World Bank).

+ EXTERNAL DEBT: 254 million dollars in 1999 (World Bank).

- ARMED FORCES: Estimated by the International Institute of  Strategic Studies at between 200,000 and 250,000 men, mostly conscripts.