Eritrea: a people under siege
By Adane Ghebremeskel Nov 13, 2013 (old article but well written)
The brutality of the repressive Eritrean government coupled with deep seated economic problems in the tiny country provide deep-seated reasons why Eritreans are a people under siege seeking escape and fundamental change in their country
Eritrea has no oil, gas or strategic minerals. It has no nuclear weapons or remnants of a settler-colonial population. Yet it is one of world’s most repressive regimes whose brutality is highlighted by fleeing refugees losing their lives in the waters off Europe’s southern coast.
The African Union declared 3rd November as a continental mourning day to be commemorated by all its member states for the hundreds of African refugees who perished off the Italian Island of Lampedusa on the 3rd of October. The AU decision is to be welcomed and is in accordance with the African tradition and custom to respect the dead and their spirit. However, it remains to be seen whether the AU will go another step beyond remembering the dead to prevent the lives of thousands of Africans by addressing the root cause of the tragedies. In fact, since the 3rd of October there were already reports of another capsized boat carrying more than 200 refugees, of which the majority were Eritreans. At least 50 people were reported drowned of which were many children whose bodies were seen floating in the Mediterranean Sea. The government of Malta, responding to the growing crisis and deaths, described the Mediterranean as becoming a ‘mass grave’.According to the official report of the Italian Interior Ministry the average age of all those who died or survived was 25 years. The overwhelming majority of them were Eritreans.
The question that many outsiders are not asking is: Why do Eritreans, especially the youth, leave their country in droves? What do they have to flee from in order to go through such dangerous and risky routes in their search for safety?
THE GREAT BETRAYAL TO PEOPLE’S ASPIRATIONS
After a protracted thirty-year war of liberation, Eritrea became independent from Ethiopia in May 1991, as a de facto state, which was formalized by a popular referendum held under the auspices of the United Nations in May 1993 when the people of Eritrea
Read the complete article here.
https://www.pambazuka.org/governance/er ... nder-siege
