It’s Africa’s most secretive state and the source of tens of thousands of migrants who have fled towards Europe but after the cultural organization added the capital Asmara to its list, Eritrea is now also home to a UNESCO World Heritage Site
Home to art-deco buildings constructed by Italian colonialists in the 1930s, UNESCO describes Asmara as an “exceptional example of early modernist urbanism at the beginning of the 20th century and its application in an African context.”
The declaration has led to a slew of positive media coverage for a country that has been ranked as the world’s worst place for press freedom in eight of the past nine years by Reporters Sans Frontieres. Commentators have dubbed Eritrea as “Africa’s North Korea,” and rights groups have accused the government of widespread repression and abuses.
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