La Croix

At least 5,000 Eritreans flee the country in a permanent state of war every month some crossing over to Ethiopia while others have had to travel across the entire length and breathe of Sudan to Libya before risking their lives to reach the coast of the lawless country to find people smugglers.

It is a “flight from the territory of the absurd” headlines the Catholic daily. It speaks to  Léonard Vincent, author of a book titled “The Eritreans” whihc points to the irony that the mass exodus is taking place 16 years after the end of the 30-year war with Ethiopia.

Vincent accuses the totalitarian regime of Isaias Afeworki of fanning the exodus by enforcing a police state at home, enlisting 17-year-olds by force into the army and presiding over a failed state where the average worker earns just 27 euros per month, according to the Catholic daily.

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