ERITREA
Region of NE Africa that takes its name from the sea that bathes it (the Red Sea was called the Erythraean Sea in antiquity) and corresponds to the coastal strip between Ras Kasar and Ras Dumeira, including the Danakil Depression and the northernmost part (north of the Tacazzè and Mareb rivers) of the Ethiopian highlands; in total 119,472 sq km.
Of the three zones, the first, mostly low and sandy, is essentially a meager steppe with an extreme climate, hot and dry; the second is a true desert, largely of volcanic origin, and only the third is suitable for human settlement, being generally above 2,000 m in elevation and thus with a temperate and healthy climate and soil particularly suited to extensive cereal cultivation and livestock farming. To the west, the highlands slope gently down toward another lowland belt (the Gasc Valley) where strong summer heat allows for various tropical crops, especially cotton, wherever irrigation is possible.
The main resources of Eritrea are the doum palm, cotton, coffee, cereals (durra), fishing products (pearls, mother-of-pearl, and also edible fish), and livestock (hides, salted meat), as well as, to a lesser extent, gold and salt. Trade is modest in scale.
The population (600,000 inhabitants) is indigenous, consisting mainly of Abyssinians (50%) and Tigrinyas (19%), Christians (of the Coptic rite) with Muslim minorities (Deni Amer, Habab, Saho) and pagan minorities (Kunama), and is relatively dense on the highlands, where the main inhabited centers rise, including the capital Asmara (90,000 inhabitants, of whom 50,000 are Italians). On the coast is the port of Massawa (17,000 inhabitants, of whom 6,000 are Italians). Our compatriots, who numbered 72,500 in 1939, are now reduced to just over 25,000.
An Italian colony since 1882, annexed to our East Africa in 1936, and conquered by Allied troops in 1941, its fate remains undecided.
**See also:** G. Stefanini, A. Desio, *Le colonie, Rube e le isole italiane dell'Egeo*, Turin 1923; A. Piccioli, *La nuova Italia d'oltremare*, Milan 1934; Touring Club Italiano, *Guida dell'Africa Orientale Italiana*, ibid. 1938. Giuseppe Caraci
ECCLESIASTICAL ORGANIZATION
Before the Italian occupation, Eritrea had no ecclesiastical organization of its own: it depended on the vicariate established for Abyssinia, entrusted to the French Lazarists. Only in 1894 (September 13) did Leo XIII erect it into an independent apostolic prefecture, entrusting it to the Italian Capuchins. The work of the first apostolic prefect (Fr. Michele da Carbonara) among the tribes was interrupted by the war between Menelik and the Italian troops (1895–97). But it was immediately resumed with