Israel presented a stark choice before the 40,000 asylum seekers living in Tel Aviv: return to Africa or face prison. So far, they’re not leaving Two weeks ago, almost all Jews in Israel celebrated the first day of Passover by reading and singing the Hagada, the centuries-old text which tells …
Read More »Eritreans flee camps but find they’re in psychological prisons
Eritrea is one of the most repressive states in the world and the refugee camps offer little freedom or safety, but enslavement and abuse instead. Television journalist Temesghen Debesai had waited years for an opportunity to make his escape from Eritrea, so when the country’s ministry of information sent him …
Read More »Prisons, Military Camps, Schools: how Eritrea is Transformed in a big Lager
Soon after independence efforts were made to differentiate between the civilian police and the military. We have all seen that with time all such pretence has been abandoned and we have all seen how uniform a civilian police can be easily interchanged for that of a soldier. Consequently it is …
Read More »Eritrea, the forced recruitment of street children: how to kill a generation
Children and human rights Many street children, who have no family, are taken into the military system even though they may be well below 18 years of age. That these children are then trained as soldiers, that they become hardened soldiers often used to carry out nefarious acts. In post …
Read More »Zero sum game outplay
By Ibrahim Osman Politicians …mostly have sweet tongue singing patriotic songs that pale their within. The deteriorating political environment within/without, the disarray outsmarted for long, the looming failed state and the hope to breakthrough moved stakeholders to seek ways forward past clever words. Thus initiatives mushroom for and against change …
Read More »Escaping Eritrea’s ‘open prison’
Forced military service and rights abuses lead many Eritreans to take the treacherous boat journey to Europe. Fatma Naib Khalid al-Amin is one of the lucky ones who survived the treacherous journey. Last year on October 3, more than 300 Eritreans drowned when their boat sank off the Italian island …
Read More »Letter from Africa: Emptying Eritrea
Farai Sevenzo The Mediterranean is fast becoming a massive watery grave for Africans. Another 500 reportedly drowned off the coast of Italy the other week, while the attention span of the world quickly moves away. But who are these Africans willing to risk all to reach European shores where they …
Read More »WHAT WENT WRONG IN ERITREA?
Eritrea’s hard-won independence promised much for the future, but instead it brought repression, war, secrecy and international pariah status I recently read an extensive report prepared by the UN Monitoring group on Somalia and Eritrea (pdf), which said Eritrea was behind a terrorist plot in January against an African Union summit in the Ethiopian capital, Addis …
Read More »Hidden Oppression in Eritrea
By VITTORIO LONGHIOCT. In Europe’s debate about how to deal with the flow of desperate migrants from Africa, there is an important element missing: the crisis in Eritrea. Every month almost 4,000 Eritreans flee to escape oppression, according to a United Nations special rapporteur. A visit to Asmara, the Eritrean …
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