Eritrea

Location	Eastern Africa, bordering the Red Sea, between Djibouti and Sudan
Geographic coordinates	15 00 N, 39 00 E
Map references	Africa
Area	total: 117,600 sq km land: 101,000 sq km water: 16,600 sq km
Area - comparative	slightly larger than Pennsylvania
Land boundaries	total: 1,626 km border countries: Djibouti 109 km, Ethiopia 912 km, Sudan 605 km
Coastline	2,234 km (mainland on Red Sea 1,151 km, islands in Red Sea 1,083 km)
Maritime claims	territorial sea: 12 nm
Climate	hot, dry desert strip along Red Sea coast; cooler and wetter in the central highlands (up to 61 cm of rainfall annually, heaviest June to September); semiarid in western hills and lowlands
Terrain	dominated by extension of Ethiopian north-south trending highlands, descending on the east to a coastal desert plain, on the northwest to hilly terrain and on the southwest to flat-to-rolling plains
Elevation extremes	lowest point: near Kulul within the Danakil Depression -75 m highest point: Soira 3,018 m
Natural resources	gold, potash, zinc, copper, salt, possibly oil and natural gas, fish
Land use	arable land: 4.78% permanent crops: 0.03% other: 95.19% (2005)
Irrigated land	210 sq km (2003)
Total renewable water resources	6.3 cu km (2001)
Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural)	total: 0.3 cu km/yr (3%/0%/97%) per capita: 68 cu m/yr (2000)
Natural hazards	frequent droughts, rare earthquakes and volcanoes; locust swarms volcanism: Dubbi (elev. 1,625 m), which last erupted in 1861, was the country's only historically active volcano until Nabro (2,218 m) came to life on 12 June 2011
Environment - current issues	deforestation; desertification; soil erosion; overgrazing; loss of infrastructure from civil warfare
Environment - international agreements	party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Ozone Layer Protection signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements
Geography - note	strategic geopolitical position along world's busiest shipping lanes; Eritrea retained the entire coastline of Ethiopia along the Red Sea upon de jure independence from Ethiopia on 24 May 1993