Lying on the border with neighbouring Serbia, it was the site of the signing of the 1995 Erdut Agreement, which initiated the UNTAES transitional administration over the Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Syrmia.

When Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, eastern Slavonia was soon overrun by the Yugoslav People's Army and Serb paramilitaries, led by the notorious warlord, Željko Ražnatović known by the name Arkan.

[7] The battle for Erdut quickly ended that summer as the entire Croatian population was expelled or killed along with other minorities including Czechs, Germans, Hungarians, Ruthenians and Ukrainians in an act of ethnic cleansing.

[8] Arkan soon set up a training camp for his Serb Volunteer Guard in Erdut, which became headquarters until the end of the war, when Croatian forces returned according to a peaceful Basic Agreement on the Region of Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium.

On November 12, 1995, officials signed what is commonly called the Erdut Agreement[9] in which the part of eastern Slavonia still occupied by Serbs would be integrated back into Croatia, gradually allowing some of the exiled refugees to return to their homes.

[16] Erdut development index is between 50 and 76% of the Croatian average,[17] and is underdeveloped municipality which is statistically classified as the First Category Area of Special State Concern by the Government of Croatia.