Theyve been sanctioned by the us, which is basically a seal of approval for me. Other than that, i think theyve boosted literacy rates by like 10 percent. They also seem to socialist/state capitalist, somewhat like belarus. Dunno anything else about them tbh.
I have few but positive memories of the only Eritrean I have ever personally known; I still listen to music from Eritrea on occasion; I have an Eritrean Tigrigna IME on my computer and I more or less know how to read fidäl. There are very few Tigrigna words I can actually recall, however: one of these is ከተበ ketebe meaning “to vaccinate”, more specifically from a proto-Semitic root meaning “to scratch”, because the Horn of Africa was an early adopter of variolation, the predecessor to vaccination. That same proto-Semitic root gave us the Arabic word “kitab”.
So yeah, Eritrea feels like a country that more people should have respect for, and that more people should know about, because it is the Horn of Africa and as such it’s as vibrant and as ancient as any other country in that region — and yet Eritrea tends to get overshadowed by other countries, or reduced to just this popular liberal imagining of “AfRiCa’s NoRtH KoReA” or whatever.
It can be very difficult to come to understand all the nuances of the politics of the Horn of Africa. My impression as a whole is that Eritrea is an anti-imperialist country working under a lot of pressure and as such it should be supported, but I can’t speak for all the policies of the ruling party. I have also heard claims that Eritrea supports the Fano militias in Amhara, but I have also heard claims that this is false propaganda, so I have no clue what to make of that.