marine:
total: 1 by type: cargo 1 (2008)
Ports and terminals:
Bata, Malabo
Military
Equatorial Guinea
Military branches:
National Guard (Guardia Nacional (Army), with Coast Guard (Navy) and
Air Wing) (2008)
Military service age and obligation:
18 years of age (est.) for compulsory military service (2008)
Manpower available for military service:
males age 16–49: 136,725 females age 16–49: 138,018 (2008 est.)
Manpower fit for military service:
males age 16–49: 101,712 females age 16–49: 104,381 (2008 est.)
Manpower reaching militarily significant age annually:
male: 6,784 female: 6,543 (2008 est.)
Military expenditures:
0.1% of GDP (2006 est.)
Transnational Issues
Equatorial Guinea
Disputes - international:
in 2002, ICJ ruled on an equidistance settlement of Cameroon-Equatorial Guinea-Nigeria maritime boundary in the Gulf of Guinea, but a dispute between Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon over an island at the mouth of the Ntem River and imprecisely defined maritime coordinates in the ICJ decision delay final delimitation; UN urges Equatorial Guinea and Gabon to resolve the sovereignty dispute over Gabon-occupied Mbane and lesser islands and to create a maritime boundary in the hydrocarbon-rich Corisco Bay
Trafficking in persons:
current situation: Equatorial Guinea is primarily a destination country for children trafficked for the purpose of forced labor and possibly for the purpose of sexual exploitation; children have been trafficked from nearby countries for domestic servitude, market labor, ambulant vending, and possibly sexual exploitation; women may also be trafficked to Equatorial Guinea from Cameroon, Benin, other neighboring countries, and China for sexual exploitation tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Equatorial Guinea is on the Tier 2 Watch List for its failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to eliminate trafficking, particularly in the areas of prosecuting and convicting trafficking offenders and failing to formalize mechanisms to provide assistance to victims; although the government made some effort to enforce laws against child labor exploitation, it failed to report any trafficking prosecutions or convictions in 2007; the government continued to lack shelters or formal procedures for providing care to victims (2008)
This page was last updated on 18 December, 2008
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@Eritrea
Introduction
Eritrea
Background:
Eritrea was awarded to Ethiopia in 1952 as part of a federation. Ethiopia's annexation of Eritrea as a province 10 years later sparked a 30-year struggle for independence that ended in 1991 with Eritrean rebels defeating governmental forces; independence was overwhelmingly approved in a 1993 referendum. A two-and-a-half-year border war with Ethiopia that erupted in 1998 ended under UN auspices in December 2000. Eritrea currently hosts a UN peacekeeping operation that is monitoring a 25 km-wide Temporary Security Zone (TSZ) on the border with Ethiopia. An international commission, organized to resolve the border dispute, posted its findings in 2002. However, both parties have been unable to reach agreement on implementing the decision. On 30 November 2007, the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission remotely demarcated the border by coordinates and dissolved itself, leaving Ethiopia still occupying several tracts of disputed territory, including the town of Badme. Eritrea accepted the EEBC's "virtual demarcation" decision and called on Ethiopia to remove its troops from the TSZ which it states is Eritrean territory. Ethiopia has not accepted the virtual demarcation decision.
Geography
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: 121,320 sq km land: 121,320 sq km water: 0 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 Denakil 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; locust swarms
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
People
Eritrea
Population:
5,502,026 (July 2008 est.)
Age structure:
0–14 years: 43% (male 1,188,496/female 1,178,520) 15–64 years: 53.4% (male 1,437,653/female 1,502,449) 65 years and over: 3.5% (male 89,634/female 105,274) (2008 est.)
Median age:
total: 18.3 years male: 17.9 years female: