
Scarred by decades of conflict and occupation, the craggy African nation of Eritrea has weathered the world's longest-running guerilla war.
The dogged determination that secured victory against Ethiopia, its giant neighbour, is woven into the national psyche, the product of a series of cynical foreign interventions.
Fascist Italy wanted Eritrea as the springboard for a new, racially pure Roman empire, Britain sold off its industry for scrap, the United States needed a base for its state-of-the-art spy station, and the Soviet Union used it as a pawn in a proxy war.