 Eritrean population in Germany by state. | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 75,735 [1] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Frankfurt · Kassel · Hamburg · Duisburg | |
| Languages | |
| Tigrinya · Tigre · Kunama · Nara · Afar, · Beja · Saho · Bilen · Arabic · English · German | |
| Religion | |
| Christian (Eritrean Orthodox, Catholic, P'ent'ay) · Islam |
Eritreans in Germany are citizens and residents of Germany who were born in Eritrea or are of Eritrean descent. As of 2020, there are at least 75,735 Eritreans living in Germany. [1]
Interaction between Germany and the Horn of Africa dates back to at least the early 15th century; three Ethiopian monks, Petrus, Bartholomeus, and Antonius, are recorded as having been in Konstanz from 1416–1418, and participated in the Council of Constance. [2] In the Late Middle Ages, the Kingdom of Ethiopia also controlled much of present-day Eritrea. [3] Thus, it is possible that these monks originated in what is now Eritrea.
Since the outbreak of the Eritrean War of Independence, many Eritreans have fled their homes as refugees and asylum-seekers. [4] During the war (1961-1991), an estimated 25,000 Eritreans sought refuge in Germany. [5]
Eritrean supporters of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front had a strong presence in Germany. Eritrea Hilfswerk Deutschland is a German organization founded in 1976 which supported the EPLF's Eritrean Relief Association (which itself had a branch in Cologne). The Research and Information Centre on Eritrea, founded in London in 1979, had a branch in Germany as well. [6]
As of 2020, most Eritrean nationals residing in Germany live in Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Bavaria. [7] The following table lists German states by Eritrean population.
| Rank | State | Population (2020) [7] |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Hesse | 9,780 |
| 2 |  North Rhine-Westphalia | 8,865 |
| 3 |  Bavaria | 8,160 |
| 4 |  Baden-Württemberg | 5,510 |
| 5 |  Lower Saxony | 2,585 |
| 6 |  Rhineland-Palatinate | 2,530 |
| 7 |  Schleswig-Holstein | 2,095 |
| 8 |  Hamburg | 2,050 |
| 9 |  Saxony | 1,475 |
| 10 |  Thuringia | 1,325 |
| 11 |  Saxony-Anhalt | 1,190 |
| 12 |  Brandenburg | 1,065 |
| 13 |  Berlin | 945 |
| 14 |  Saarland | 670 |
| 15 |  Mecklenburg-Vorpommern | 660 |
| 16 |  Bremen | 395 |
The demography of Germany is monitored by the Statistisches Bundesamt. According to the most recent data, Germany's population is 84,607,016 making it the most populous country in the European Union and the nineteenth-most populous country in the world. The total fertility rate was rated at 1.58 in 2021, significantly below the replacement rate of 2.1. For a long time Germany had one of the world's lowest fertility rates of around 1.3 to 1.4, however there has been a small increase in recent years. Due to the low birth rate Germany has recorded more deaths than births every year since 1972, which means 2021 was the 50th consecutive year the German population would have decreased without immigration. However, due to immigration the population has actually increased during the last half-century. In 2019 the number of people with a foreign background was 26%; this category includes foreigners, naturalized citizens, ethnic German repatriates from Eastern Europe and the children of all of the above.
The Horn of Africa (HoA), also known as the Somali Peninsula, is a large peninsula and geopolitical region in East Africa. Located on the easternmost part of the African mainland, it is the fourth largest peninsula in the world. It is composed of Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Eritrea. Although not common, broader definitions include parts or all of Kenya and Sudan. It has been described as a region of great geopolitical and strategic importance since it is situated along the southern boundary of the Red Sea, extending hundreds of kilometres into the Gulf of Aden, Guardafui Channel, and Indian Ocean, it also shares a maritime border with the Arabian Peninsula.
Immigration to Germany, both in the country's modern borders and the many political entities that preceded it, has occurred throughout the country's history. Today, Germany is one of the most popular destinations for immigrants in the world, with well over 1 million people moving there each year since 2013. As of 2019, around 13.7 million people living in Germany, or about 17% of the population, are first-generation immigrants.
The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) is an office-level agency in the federal administration of Switzerland, and a part of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. Together with other federal offices, SDC is responsible for overall coordination of Swiss international development activities and cooperation with Eastern Europe, as well as humanitarian aid.
The Somali diaspora or Qurbajoogta refers to Somalis who were born in Greater Somalia and reside in areas of the world that they were not born in. The civil war in Somalia greatly increased the size of the Somali diaspora, as many Somalis moved from Greater Somalia primarily to Europe, North America, Southern Africa and Australia. There are also small Somali populations in other pockets of Europe and Asia. The UN estimates that in 2015, approximately 2 million people from Somalia were living outside of the country's borders.
Eritreans are the native inhabitants of Eritrea, as well as the global diaspora of Eritrea. Eritreans constitute several component ethnic groups, some of which are related to ethnic groups that make up the Ethiopian people in neighboring Ethiopia and people groups in other parts of the Horn of Africa. Nine of these component ethnic groups are officially recognized by the Government of Eritrea.
The Albanians in Germany refers to the Albanian migrants in Germany and their descendants. They mostly trace their origins to Albania, Kosovo and to a lesser extent to North Macedonia and other Albanian-speaking territories in the Balkan Peninsula. Their exact number is difficult to determine as some ethnic Albanians hold German, Macedonian, Serbian or another Former Yugoslavian citizenship.
Afghan diaspora refers to the Afghan people that reside and work outside of Afghanistan. They include natives and citizens of Afghanistan who have immigrated to other countries. The majority of the diaspora has been formed by Afghan refugees since the start of the Soviet–Afghan War in 1979; the largest numbers temporarily reside in Iran. As stateless refugees or asylum seekers, they are protected by the well-established non-refoulement principle and the U.N. Convention Against Torture. The ones having at least one American parent are further protected by United States laws.
Abiy Ahmed Ali is an Ethiopian politician serving as the third Prime Minister of Ethiopia since 2018, and as the leader of the Prosperity Party since 2019. He was awarded the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize "for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and in particular for his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighbouring Eritrea". Abiy served as the third chairman of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) that governed Ethiopia for 28 years and the first person of Oromo descent to hold that position. Abiy is a member of the Ethiopian parliament, and was a member of the Oromo Democratic Party (ODP), one of the then four coalition parties of the EPRDF, until its rule ceased in 2019 and he formed his own party, the Prosperity Party.
Events of 2020 in Ethiopia.
The Tigray War was an armed conflict that lasted from 3 November 2020 to 3 November 2022. The war was primarily fought in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia between forces allied to the Ethiopian federal government and Eritrea on one side, and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) on the other.
This timeline of the Tigray War is part of a chronology of the military engagements of the Tigray War, a civil war that began in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia in early November 2020.
The Hitsats massacre was a massacre at Hitsats refugee camp on or around 19 November 2020 during the Tigray War. The civilians killed were 300 Eritrean refugees, according to Europe External Programme with Africa (EEPA), and five humanitarian workers, according to The New York Times, Associated Press, and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The spillover of the Tigray War has had an impact on other countries in the surrounding region, particularly in Sudan. This spillover mainly consisted of Ethiopian refugees, more than 50,000 of which have crossed the Ethiopia–Sudan border. There have also been border clashes, mostly between the Sudanese Armed Forces and Ethiopian militias, but the Sudanese government has also claimed ambushes by the Ethiopian National Defense Force have taken place. Most of the fighting centered in Al-Fashaqa, a fertile plain claimed by both Sudan and Ethiopia.
The refoulement of Eritrean refugees consists of the forceful return of Eritrean refugees from Ethiopia back to Eritrea, while international law requires non-refoulement. The New York Times, Europe External Programme with Africa and Human Rights Concern Eritrea claimed that Eritrean refugees were forcefully returned to Eritrea during the Tigray War that started in late November 2020 from the Hitsats and Shimelba refugee camps. On 2 February 2021, there were 20,000 unaccounted for Eritrean refugees according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees following a visit to Ethiopia.
This Timeline of the Tigray War is part of a chronology of the military engagements of the Tigray War, a civil war that began in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia in early November 2020.
Abiy Ahmed's tenure as prime minister of Ethiopia began on 2 April 2018 with his swearing-in at the Ethiopian parliament, succeeding Hailemariam Desalegn. Abiy is the first person of Oromo descent to hold the office, and became chair of the ruling Prosperity Party after the dissolution of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) in November 2019.
The 1995 Ethiopian Federal Constitution formalizes an ethnic federalism law aimed at undermining long-standing ethnic imperial rule, reducing ethnic tensions, promoting regional autonomy, and upholding unqualified rights to self-determination and secession in a state with more than 80 different ethnic groups. But the constitution is divisive, both among Ethiopian nationalists who believe it undermines centralized authority and fuels interethnic conflict, and among ethnic federalists who fear that the development of its vague components could lead to authoritarian centralization or even the maintenance of minority ethnic hegemony. Parliamentary elections since 1995 have taken place every five years since enactment. All but one of these have resulted in government by members of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) political coalition, under three prime ministers. The EPRDF was under the effective control of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which represents a small ethnic minority. In 2019 the EPRDF, under Abiy, was dissolved and he inaugurated the pan-ethnic Prosperity Party which won the 2021 Ethiopian Election, returning him as prime minister. But both political entities were different kinds of responses to the ongoing tension between constitutional ethnic federalism and the Ethiopian state's authority. Over the same period, and all administrations, a range of major conflicts with ethnic roots have occurred or continued, and the press and availability of information have been controlled. There has also been dramatic economic growth and liberalization, which has itself been attributed to, and used to justify, authoritarian state policy.
The events of the Tigray War have sparked numerous reactions and protests worldwide.
The Eritrea–Sudan border is 686 km (426 mi) in length and runs from Eritrea and Sudan's tripoint with Ethiopia in the south, to the town of Ras Kasar in the very south of Eritrea. The border has been the site of several tensions, with deportations, border conflicts and colonialism by the United Kingdom and Italy. The border has also seen illegal acts such as human trafficking and hundreds of illegal crossings made by Eritreans. Due to the Tigray War, Sudan saw a surge of Eritrean and Ethiopian civilians cross its border with Eritrea and by 2023 there were nearly 130,000 refugees and civilians confirmed living in the country.