Eritrea

The remains of what is thought to be the oldest settled agricultural community in Africa have been discovered on the outskirts of the Eritrean capital, Asmara. Experts say the sites are of "global importance", and believe they could change the way the history of the Horn of Africa is viewed.

The New York-based rights watchdog, Human Rights Watch (HRW), has called on the Eritrean government to free immediately nine journalists detained in September 2001 following the government's imposition of a ban on all private and independent publications in the country, HRW said in a press statement on Thursday.

Eritrea faces a rapid expansion of the HIV/AIDS
pandemic within the next few years, the Joint United Nations Programme on
HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) warned on Tuesday. Dominique Mathiot, the UNAIDS Country
Programme Adviser, believes the number of people infected by HIV could increase significantly.

The United Nations is to end the refugee status of hundreds of thousands of Eritreans who have fled decades of fighting in their country, the UN said on Wednesday. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said they were no longer at risk from war – which has blighted the country for more than 30 years.

Eritrea’s first National Book Fair is being held this week in the country’s capital, Asmara. The fair, attended by Eritrean authors, publishers and booksellers, is intended to promote reading and literature in a country where, after 30 years of war, books are considered an expensive luxury. Many schools have no books for their pupils, the country’s only two public libraries are in Asmara and the handful of bookshops which exist offer a very limited range. “There is a shortage of books but als...read more

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