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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 the degree of consensus it…
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A Glimpse at Gedli Boulevard, From the sidewalk
Exactly a year and a few weeks ago I wrote a draft article to post on Awate in the form of a letter to Tzigereda. It was a kind of encouragement and response to her after she wrote “Gejeret 1975: Life Under Mengistu’s Derg.” Seeing people criticising her on writing personal stuff as well as…
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Announcing Awate IGAD Forum
Dear friends, Two days ago, we launched the 2018 fundraising entitled “Support Awate.com” campaign which will continue for some time. The response during the last two days has been encouraging to the extent that it inspired us so much we have decided to announce one of our enhancement plans ahead of time–we believe we do…
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Dear friends and readers of Awate.com
The political situation in the immediate neighborhood of Eritrea is becoming increasingly risky, and the situations inside Eritrea are calling on all citizens to do their utmost to stop the regime that continues to destroy the fabric of our society. There have been episodic resistances in that regard, the most recent being the firm stand…
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Go Love a Bum: When Art and Artist Mislead
You are a survivor A child of promise You are protected like the iris of the eye Time flies, you are at the age of engagement and marriage During the planting season before the rains fall My heart led me, and I came to visit you I stand on your threshold and say how are…
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Tyranny: Slavery Of the 21st century
The last twenty-six years have been the most painful years for the Eritrean people. For more than two decades Eritreans went through the most brutal acts of evil. Here, I would like to share my personal experience and testimony. I vividly remember the colorful and joyful day when Eritrea was liberated after ending the Ethiopian…
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A Somber New Years’s Eve In Eritrea
New Year’s Eve of 2018 has been the most somber night compared to how Eritreans celebrated the night in the past. Reached by phone in Jeddah, An American visitor to Eritrea Said, “Eritreans who do not need a reason to party strolled lazily with nowhere to go,” The top echelon of the ruling party, however,…
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Hajji Mussa: Awate.com 2017 Man of The Year
On Friday, October 20, 2017, the Eritrean security forces arrested Hajji Mussa Mohamed Nur and scores of others from different parts of Asmara. He is the Board Director of Al-Diaa Islamic school. The school is a private community school established in the 1960s by the late Ustaz Mohammed Bashir Ahmed. Hajji Musa is a respected…
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The Hurt Locker: Film Review and Analysis
In an era of the Internet, in the age of sound bites, and in the world of texts that collapse the meaning of words into a single letter or two; where the bombardment of information ceaselessly flows, the ability to analyze, synthesize, and correctly processing information becomes ever more crucially important. How does one begin, for…
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The Eritrean Government Admits Its Banking Blunder
In an unusual admission to problems it faces, in yesterday’s edition of Haddas Eritrea, a Tigrinya newspaper it owns, the Eritrean government issued an editorial entitled “Appropriate Correction.” The editorial raises more questions than it answers as it fails to restore the exceeding loss of confidence in the government-owned financial institutions that allows depositors only…
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Eritrean Economy in Limbo
The recent government decision to withdraw the licenses of businesses and freeze their bank accounts has resulted in freezing the entire economy. Eritreans are complaining that the unpopular government policy has destroyed the already weak economy and made many people lose their means of livelihood. So far, over 300 businesses that didn’t deposit their revenues in banks…
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Hajji Mussa Refuses to Walk Out of Prison
After almost two months in jail, sources reported to Gedab News that Hajji Mussa, who was arrested by the government security forces, is seriously ill. Though there is no specific information about the illness that he is suffering from, the presidential office has instructed the prison warden to release Hajji Mussa on bail and put…
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Eritrea’s Democratic Credentials!
During the United Nations deliberations on the future of Eritrea in the 1950s, one particular claim was made consistently to justify the annexation of Eritrea to Ethiopia. This claim was economical in nature and it maintained that Eritrea was a poor country that can’t sustain itself as an independent nation. This claim was sarcastically refuted…
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Abdurahman Younis: My Proud Friend Moves On
A famous commercial tagline goes, “Never let them see you sweat.” And there was a man who never let them see him sweat. A free-spirited man who faced adversity, jail, and deprivation, but never capitulated. How could he? How could he when he was blessed with a free, stubborn soul that refused to depart except…
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Awate Archives: Why Idris Aba Arre Is Arrested
[The following archived article is being republished for the fourth 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, he was a director within…
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Eritrean Depositors Lose Control of Their Funds
In a move reminiscent of past campaigns, over the last few weeks, the Isaias Afwerki’s government has arrested many people and sealed their businesses. Government sources indicated the reason for the far-reaching arrests is to investigate alleged crimes of corruption. The doors of at least 200 businesses in Asmara and other places in Eritrea have…
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Akhriya Steps-Forth: From Akhriya to All of Eritrea
ኣኽርያ በገሰው፡ ካብ ኣኽሪያ ናብ ኩሉ ኤሪትሪያ: Unlike the commonly known Las Vegas slogan, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” our motto is and should be the stark opposite of that: What happened in Akhriya did not, could not, and will not stay in Akhriya. This is a call to action and a call to arms from the belly of…
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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 opposition websites and radio stations…
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Ali Saleh Faced Muammer Gaddafi’s Fate
Two days after he disowned his Houthi allies in a television interview, and calling on Saudi Arabia to end its hostilities in Yemen, armed Houthis stopped his convoy south of Sanaa and shot him in the head. Yemeni sources indicated he was on his way to being smuggled out of the country by UAE forces.…
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The Akhriya Uprising: Lessons Gleaned
To expect convergence when canvassing various Eritrean opposition media outlets during any confrontational events like the Akhriya uprising would be par for the course. What shouldn’t be par for the course is the colluding, inadvertently or not, that aligns us with the supporters the PFDJ (the ruling party) with the propaganda machination of the Eritrean…
