This story revolves around the early memories of my upbringing that shaped my identity. In all conscience, it is neither a riveting story nor based on exaggerated psychological self-assessment of my past; it is just a modest soul-searching endeavour accompanied by some indulgence in retrospection. Why do I find it …
Read More »Eritrea: Cries of a Nation on the Brink of Evanescence
The last six months have seen a flurry of diplomatic activities involving most of the Horn-of-Africa countries and some member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). These activities which have included a series of mediation efforts, state visits, summit meetings, and bilateral agreements seem to herald a new phase of …
Read More »The Captivating, But Dubious Politics of Ethiopia’s Abiy Ahmed
Since Dr. Abiy Ahmed burst onto the Ethiopian political scene as the country’s new prime minister under five months ago, much has been said and written about his background, vision and reformist agenda as well as the support he has been gaining as a leader. The level of public support …
Read More »Eritrean Opposition Movement: The Political Imperative of Self-Renewal
Recent political developments in Ethiopia seem to have generated internal dynamics that promise to fundamentally alter the political landscape in the country and perhaps even in the region. The emergence in April of Ethiopia’s newly elected prime minister, Dr. Abiy Ahmed has potentially opened the way for unprecedented social and …
Read More »Eritrea’s Socio-politically Disjointed Generational Succession
Human societies owe their perpetuity to the dynamic process of generational succession in which societal legacy is handed down from one generation to the next often seamlessly and imperceptibly. The legacy that gets transmitted down the generations by this ‘passing-the-baton’ type process encompasses the universal societal attributes of culture, tradition, …
Read More »UN Sanctions Against Eritrea Likely to Outlast Current Regime
Following its annual review of Eritrea sanctions in place since 2009, the UN Security Council (SC) announced on November 14, 2017, its decision to renew the measures for another year. Supported by all but four abstaining Council members, the decision was similar to those of the past seven years in …
Read More »A Notch Up in Eritrea’s Struggle For Liberty and Justice
Circumstances surrounding a student-led public protest that took place in the Eritrean capital, Asmara on October 31, 2017, were lauded by many citizens as a historical event that marks the beginning of an end of one of the modern world’s ugliest tyrannies. Accounts of the protest were extensively reported by …
Read More »The Bifurcated World of Eritrea’s ‘Caged’ Tyrant
In an era when the world is witnessing unprecedented technological advances, unparalleled prosperity and heightened hopes for enduring global peace, an evil regime in Eritrea continues to destroy a country by ruining its national economy, driving the youthful and educated segments of its population into exile and subjecting the rest …
Read More »Prison Break: A Microcosm of Popular Uprising Against Tyranny
The inspiration for writing this article was drawn from a piece aptly titled “Seventeen years in Prison without Charge” that recently featured on Awate.com. The story of Haj Mohammed Ali Mahmoud the piece narrates is, sadly enough, also the story of thousands of other Eritrean prisoners that are wasting away …
Read More »Hitting the Enemy Where It Hurts the Most
An issue that often comes up in political discussions on Eritrea is whether political change in the country will be achieved through the efforts of domestic forces/elements or those of the exiled opposition movement. A general sense of ongoing debate on the subject seems to suggest that current political opinions …
Read More »A Mafia Group Masquerading as Lawful Government
Twentieth-century world history has recorded the rise and fall of powers that waged devastating regional and global wars to conquer and dominate the world. Their ultimate goal was to affirm their self-proclaimed racial supremacy and/or to plunder the national wealth of other societies. The world had also witnessed political systems …
Read More »United States Policy On Eritrea: Any Prospects for Change?
The United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs held a subcommittee hearing titled ‘Eritrea: A Neglected Regional Threat’ on September 14, 2016. Participating in the hearing were a two-member panel of witnesses representing the State Department and a three-member panel of expert witnesses. Post-hearing reviews and analyses coming out of …
Read More »A Defenseless Regime With Indefensible Record
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 …
Read More »Not Friends, Not Enemies – Just Nations With Interests
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 …
Read More »The Day of Reckoning
It will have been a year on June 23rd since the UN-appointed Commission of Inquiry on Eritrea (COIE) presented its first report on the human rights situation in the country. The report documented personal testimonies from hundreds of victims and witnesses of a range of human rights violations committed by …
Read More »Europe Targets Eritrea’s Natural Resources
Europe’s recent rapprochement with the government of Eritrea was the outcome of an elaborate politico-diplomatic campaign spearheaded by the EU. In an earlier posting, the writer stipulated that the push by Brussels for normalizing relations was driven by Europe’s political and economic agendas on Eritrea. He further argued that the …
Read More »Europe’s Cynical Designs On Eritrea: Political Agenda
An article that this writer posted at Awate in March had pondered the question of what may have been the real reason(s) that impelled the EU to re-engage the Eritrean government and provide it with a sizeable aid package early this year. To be sure, EU’s official statements of the …
Read More »A Rudderless And Decrepit EU Courts A Tyrannical Regime
Following up on its decision last December to engage the Eritrean government, the European Union (EU) recently signed a cooperation agreement involving the provision of €200 million in development assistance to the regime. Scheduled to be disbursed over the next five years, the aid package is intended to stem the …
Read More »Growing International Consensus On Realities In Eritrea
The October 2015 UN Security Council (UNSC) decision to extend the mandate of the Somalia-Eritrea Monitoring Group, hence retain existing sanctions on Eritrea’s dictatorship until December 2016 was a major victory for all who struggle for democracy and human rights in the country. Passed just six months after the UN …
Read More »Accommodating Tyranny Is Historic Mistake
It was in May 1991 that the current regime in Eritrea and its leader, President Isaias Afewerki, burst onto the global political scene as the leadership of a revolutionary movement that had just triumphed in its thirty-year war for national liberation. In the months that followed, and amid unprecedented nationalist …
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