Awate Fearless News, Opinion, Analysis On Eritrea And Beyond

The US Congress’ Foreign Affairs Committee will have a hearing on Eritrea under the title, “Eritrea: A Neglected Regional Threat”. The sub-committee hearing will take place tomorrow, Wednesday, September 14, 2016 at 2 pm Eastern. We hope to be able to link the live stream of the hearing on Eritrea from the Foreign Affairs Committee website…

Voices of justice and democracy are challenging modern Ethiopia. The adoption of “democracy” in the system of governance is becoming highly volatile in today’s political life. Despite its theoretical connotation and rationale, its notion has been devalued as a simple commodity that wishy-washy politicians sell to ordinary citizens. Instead of a justifiable system of governance,…

It has been over a year since the widespread public unrest erupted in the Oromia state of Ethiopia. This year, the simmering conflict between the Amara and Tigrai regions over parts of Welkait also erupted. While the Ethiopian government is now facing the two problems, Ethiopians and others are engaged in serious (and heated) debates…

July 1st this year marked the culmination of a four-year, UN-mandated investigation into human rights violations in Eritrea whereupon the UN concluded that crimes against humanity have been committed by some government institutions and a confidential list of officials. The UN involvement in the case had its genesis in the Eritrean government’s 2001 crackdown on…

Traditionally; most of the Tigriniya love songs hanker on the themes of interference by others, on one lover’s succumbing to the village gossip, “my love, do not believe the gossip, it is motivated by jealousy “. And many are lamentations about parents who refused to bless the courtship because of lack of societal stature and…

A few days ago I stumbled on a new YouTube Phenomenon, The Agaiazian.tv, broadcast by an Eritrean named Tesfazion. Laden with the history of Tigray and Tigrinya, Tesfazion calls Eritrea a country needled out from the thin air, sewing the nine ethnic groups to create an artificial country by Vatican designers. His main thesis is…

Reviewing official statements on world perspective that the Government of Eritrea put out periodically over the last 15 years, one would get the impression that the country of Eritrea is somehow the most coveted, yet the most hated and conspired-against nation in the world! Such an impression is bound to prompt the question of why…

In Part I tried to show two separate narratives or discourses around martyrdom, sovereignty, and nationalism as represented by the dominant Party-State versus the grassroots or popular views. I also argued the Party-State’s intense propaganda that the population have been subjected to on its own, cannot explain why the majority of the communities, at least…

Introductory note: This article is based on my contribution to a panel discussion on the 14th of May 2016 organized to mark the Eritrean Martyrs Memorial Day.  By way of introduction let me share with you the following brief anecdote. On reading the email posting announcing the event, a friend of mine suggested that I was…