Tag: eritrea
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Between Constitutionalism and “The Constitution”
[Reading time 9 minutes] Carlo was a driving school owner and trainer who was traveling to Keren in a bus together with his friend. The bus driver was reckless and seemed incompetent. The bus swayed and the passenger panicked, including Carlo. The friend asked Carlo to sit beside the driver and instruct him how to…
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The Horn of Africa: Unchanging Political Seasons
(Reading Time: 7 minutes) Historically, the African region that contains Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somaliland, and Somalia are considered Horn of Africa countries though Sudan doesn’t belong to that geography. But the above countries are so much related and influenced by each other. These countries have no properly defined geographical limits, therefore, they are haphazardly…
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Eritrean PFDJ and Crowd Mentality
The following is inspired by Gustav Le Bon’s book, The Crowd—the study of the popular mind. If you are walking on a street and dog bites you badly, do you sue the dog or the owner? That is how I see the vulgarity and abuse that Eritreans are facing. The PFDJ cannot claim innocence, I…
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Tension in the Eritrean Ethiopian Border
(Reading time: 5 minutes) Gedab News learned that, over the last two weeks, large contingents of [Eritrean and Tigrayan] forces and equipment were amassed around the Ethiopian-Eritrean border areas. For the last few weeks, both forces have been undergoing serious training and “a confrontation is very likely”, and if a confrontation ignites between the two…
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Ethiopia, Eritrea and Sudan in Turmoil
After three-years of chaos, Sudan is still going through a precarious political situation where the central government has little control over the peripheries outside the Khartoum metropolis. Armed insurgencies and unrest engulf Kordofan and Darfur regions, only the latter is relatively calm due to the presence of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a militia group…
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Awate.com is released from Intensive Care
After operating at a minimum capacity for a while, awate.com is now back–after improving website security and renewed drive.
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Three-Legged Stool: Team Lemma, Loses Its Luster
[This Pencil Editorial was first published on March 18, 2019. Today, three years later, we are republishing it hoping it might help refresh our memories on what transpired since then might//Editor] At the beginning, avid admirers considered it pure gold, now they are startled, Team Lemma has lost its luster. Also, unbeknownst to many, it’s…
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Singers and Poets
About ten years ago there was a popular singer named Tarreqe. He had a unique voice. Until his slow disappearance, he used to remind me of Mohammed Wardi the Sudanese singer. Last time I watched Isaias’ marathon interview–I had to because it’s my raw material. After the end of the interview, Helen Meles screeched, neberlna,…
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Ethiopia Prepares for a Negotiated Settlement
On Sunday, a two-day long pan-Ethiopian meeting concluded in Addis Ababa. The preparatory meeting elected a committee that will draw plans for a wider nationwide consultation and negotiations conference in which the constitution and the federal status of Ethiopia will be discussed. Regional notables, academicians and politicians attended the meeting. The attendants overwhelmingly agreed that…
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The Six-Husbands of Eritrea
In the Tigrinya language we do not have separate words for sebay, as in husband, and sebaay, as in Man. Both are sebay. Therefore, the title is not about men but about husbands. Also, we refer to Eritrea in the feminine gender, Eritra t’Ewet, not Ertra y’Ewet, always in the feminine gender. But what triggered…
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Awate.com’s Saleh Johar interviews Meles Zenawi (2008)
The following was first published in May 26, 2008. It’s the first ever interview with the late PM Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia by an Eritreans entity since 1997. The file was lost around 2012 due to some server mishap. Thereafter, several people have asked us about it but we couldn’t find it until recently. This republishing is dedicated…
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“May You Beget A Black Cat”
In 1986 a border conflict erupted between Qatar and Bahrain over the ownership of the Hawar Islands (Fisht AlDibal). Qatari forces arrested 29 workers sent by Bahrain on a construction job. Soon, Saudi Arabia succeeded in mediating and securing the release of the prisoners; in 1994, the case was resolved by the international court under…
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Eritrea: A Conveyer Belt Supplying Mercenaries
Eritrea has been a training ground for Sudanese opposition groups that finally made peace with Khartoum and were absorbed in the system in what was known as the Eastern Sudan Peace Agreement in 2006. Still, recent reports indicate that new Sudanese groups are being trained there. In April 2020, Gedab News reported that “UAE airplanes…
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Please Come and Invade Us!
A fringe racist, bigoted, and servile group has been trying hard to undo Eritrea and what its people stand for. They have been mocking the struggle for self-determination and freedom including its veterans. They were in the verge of losing steam when the Ethiopian civil war erupted and the fringe Tigrayan groups became vocal. Their wish is to…
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Eritrea: “A Foolish Undertaking”
Over the years I have come across many views; some I learned from, others I were a waste of time, still others were dazzling and made me scratch my head. My topic for today is one the most annoying view That’s based on a twisted logic, devoid of any rational thinking—the following is a sample:…
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Alleged Consultation to Form a Military Wing Unfounded
Gedab Investigative Report: On July 30, 2021, an Eritrean website reported about a “consultation between Eritrean entities.” It further reported that “several Eritrean opposition organizations were engaged in preparatory meeting to form “a wide political and military entity to topple the Asmara regime.” It added, “the Khartoum consultations is led by Mesfin Hagos, an ex-Eritrean defense…
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Rude Awakening
Emperor Humayun was the ruler of the Moghul empire in the 16th century in what is now Afghanistan, Pakistan, North India, and Bangladesh. One day in 1556, Humayun carried some books from his library, stepped on his robe and tripped on the stairs and injured himself, and died a few days later. Emperor Haile Selassie…
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Eritrean Leader’s Sandcastle Play
Eritrean president Isaias Afewerki recently ventured out of his hideout at Adi Halo near Asmara to travel to the port city of Massawa for some reflective moments at the beach. [Adi Halo is, of course, the leader’s infamous rural outpost which doubles as his makeshift “presidential office.” The place has an even more bizarre history…
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Kings of Kings and Colonels
In ancient times, each locality, and later each city, had a king. One of them emerged stronger and subjugated the rest. They accepted his authority over them and submitted to his rule with varying level of autonomy. Thus, he became King of Kings, who overtime became an expansionist emperor. Some historian trace that to the…
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Eritrea, Tigray, and Ethiopia: Where to from Here?
Passions in the current war (Eritrea and Ethiopia on one side) and Tigray on the other are running high akin to the war of the 1998 to 2000 where the majority in diaspora were settled on the notion of my country, right or wrong. When passions run this high it is rather difficult to distance…