Eritrea

Eritrea is not a retirement or FIRE destination. It is not a remote work destination. The State Department has it at Level 2, which undersells the reality: the government requires travel permits to move outside Asmara, foreigners are regularly surveilled, journalists and aid workers have been detained without charge, and the U.S. Embassy operates with severely limited capacity to assist Americans in emergencies. The only person who has a legitimate reason to evaluate Eritrea long-term is someone with deep personal or family ties to the country, or a humanitarian or diplomatic professional who has no choice. If you are reading this because the low cost numbers caught your eye, keep reading.

The $304 per month figure for living expenses excluding rent, and the $216 per month for a one-bedroom in the city center, are almost certainly based on sparse Numbeo data from a country where very few foreigners report prices. Treat those numbers as rough signals, not budgets. The Eritrean nakfa operates under a fixed official exchange rate that the government controls, and a parallel market has historically offered significantly different rates. Importing goods is restricted, foreign currency is tightly controlled, and what you can actually buy with dollars inside the country depends heavily on government policy at any given moment. A $520 per month all-in budget would be ambitious for a local living simply. For an American expecting Western imports, reliable internet, or any consumer goods beyond basics, it is not a realistic floor.

The practical friction here goes well beyond inconvenience. Internet connectivity is among the worst in the world. Speedtest has no rankable data for Eritrea because there is so little measurable traffic. Telecom Eritrea holds a state monopoly and broadband is extremely limited outside government institutions. Remote work is not viable. The healthcare index score of 19.2 is one of the lowest on earth, reflecting a system with fewer than 1 physician per 10,000 people and hospitals that lack basic diagnostic equipment and medications. Medical evacuation to Ethiopia or Kenya would be your plan for anything beyond minor illness, and evacuation itself requires navigating a government that controls all exit points. English proficiency is low, with Tigrinya and Arabic the dominant languages. Getting anything done administratively requires a local fixer or translator, and even then the government bureaucracy moves on its own schedule.

For U.S. tax purposes, Americans living in Eritrea are subject to the same worldwide income reporting requirements as anywhere else. You file a U.S. return regardless of where you live. The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion applies if you meet the bona fide residence or physical presence test, letting you exclude up to $126,500 of earned income for 2024. Eritrea has no tax treaty with the United States, so there is no treaty protection against double taxation, though the Foreign Tax Credit provides some offset for taxes paid to Eritrea. The more unusual issue is that Eritrea itself imposes a 2% "diaspora tax" on Eritrean nationals living abroad, which the UN has condemned and which does not apply to Americans who are not Eritrean nationals. The standard FBAR and FATCA rules apply if you hold foreign financial accounts above the relevant thresholds, though maintaining a foreign bank account in Eritrea presents its own practical difficulties given the banking system's isolation from international financial networks.