Since 2001, Eritreans have added new words to their exile vocabulary. They have new words for new destinations and new graveyards: Lampedusa, Italy. Calais, France. Almeria, Spain. Tel Aviv, Israel. They have new entry points to further destinations: the Tijuana-San Diego border. The Quebec-Vermont border. The Buffalo-Ontario border. They have … more
The United Nations has published its 2013 Human Development Report (HDR) and Eritrea ranks number 181 in the world, that is, 7th from the bottom. With a Human Development Index (HDI) of 0.351, Eritrea is ahead of only 6 mostly war-torn African nations: Niger, Congo, Mozambique, Chad, Burkino Faso and … more
For their Christmas present, Dr. Bereket Habte-Selassie’s colleagues received a 48-page “book review” of his books. The reviewers, Asaminew Ewnetun and Aradom Fedai Haqi, took 48 pages to say: this colleague of yours whom you know as a scholar, a professor of African and Afro-American studies, a Pan African and with … more
(picture courtesy of BBC) The 15 Eritrean football players who had asked for political asylum in Uganda in December following their losing match to Rwanda have been granted political asylum, according to BBC. Of the 15 (including the team doctor) who were granted asylum, 2 returned to Eritrea, adds the … more
Eritrean strongman Isaias Afwerki dismissed the January 21 military takeover of his Ministry of Information as a minor incident orchestrated by “a handful” of individuals, an incident that he and his ministers, who were in a meeting within the confines here [presidential palace], discussed “all day.” The disclosures were made … more
The Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) waged Operation Fenkil on February 8, 1990. By February 10, 1990, the military operation had achieved its mission: to liberate the port city of Massawa and to evict the occupying Ethiopian force– which lost about 8,000 soldiers in the 3-day battle. The anniversary of … more
Eritrea’s self-declared president sent a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to complain that Eritrea has been the “target of malicious and concerted practices of human trafficking” for the “past ten years or so” and since Eritrea has “statutory obligations as well as universal morale [sic] and humanitarian responsibilities” … more
On February 2, Sudan’s Omar Al Bashir was in Asmara for a one-day “working visit.” This was, as we reported, the first visit to Eritrea by a foreign head of state since the developments of January 21, when members of Eritrean Defense Forces occupied Eritrea’s Ministry of Information for a … more
PFDJ Dictionary If you are an Eritrean living in Africa or the Middle East, you have to go to the Eritrean embassy to renew your passport, which you will need for your residency permit. If you are an Eritrean living in Europe, North America, Australia, etc, you can go to … more
Thanks for your patience… awate.com is back..however, as you can see, we are missing a few articles, some articles, actually a whole lot of articles (April 2012 – December 12) that we are in the process of reconstructing. We have been through this before: it will take us a little … more
It is that time of year when we review the past and make pledges for the future. To take stock, to assess, to evaluate and then to act: to realign, to repurpose and redirect. Eritrea is not a business and this is not a management course so we owe you … more
An interview with Sultan Omer, Executive Director of RTHAR Relief, an NGO that caters to the needs of Eritrean refugees. The interview was conducted by Abdulkerim of Eri Adal television of Sweden. Part 1 Part2
The following archived article is being republished for the third time] Seven months after this controversial article was published, Idris Aba Are, a severely handicapped veteran EPLF fighter, was arrested. The article deals with the author’s observations of the government’s policy regarding “education in mother tongue.” At the time of his arrest, … more
The great service that youtube and social media provide is to facilitate the dissemination of history. Unfortunately, because the videos are sometimes not properly titled, tagged, described or indexed, they appear and then disappear without impact. Here’s a video documentary that French documentary-makers recorded over a two year period in Eritrea … more