Assab or Aseb is a port city in the Southern Red Sea Region of Eritrea. It is situated on the west coast of the Red Sea. Languages spoken in Assab are predominantly Afar, Tigrinya, and Arabic. After the Italian government took control of the port in 1882, it laid the foundations for the formation of the colony of Italian Eritrea, which became the independent country of Eritrea following its independence from Ethiopia in the 1990s.