The first person of Eritrean descent has been elected into the US House of Representatives.

Joe Neguse is the son of Eritrean refugee parents who moved to the US a year before he was born, in order to flee conflict in Eritrea.

He was elected as a Democrat congressman for Colorado's Second District in the US mid-term elections, winning 60% of the vote.

He is also Colorado’s first black Congressman and, at 34, the youngest of the nine representatives of the state.

In a tweet he said voters had made history.