Those unable to access the video story due to language barrier, read the below that covers Mai-Habar succinctly.
asmarino.com
The shock strategy
The Eritrean government, led by Isaias Afwerki and the People’s Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ) never allows dissent. Eritreans live in fear of expressing their desires for change and demanding their human rights. Every time they try, they are met with brutal hostility which results in many deaths and discourages the survivors from trying again. In its short history, Eritrea has witnessed several occasions which indicated how much its citizens want to have their say in the running of their own country; but each one of these instances has almost always been followed by killings and imprisonments.
The protest by disabled veterans
In 1994, in Mai Habar, veterans who were disabled as a consequence of war injuries sustained participating in the struggle for liberation were gathered in protest because their pleas for decent treatment and integration into the civil community were not being heard. They started making their way towards Asmara and refused to stay in the camp within which they had been living, segregated from the rest of society. When attempts to disperse them failed, owing to the veterans’ insistence on being given real solutions to their problems, the government sent soldiers who opened fire on the unarmed disabled veterans. Immediately after the war of liberation, whilst reverence for those who had risked life and limb for independence was still high, an event such as this would have caused uproar in the population. However, Isaias Afwerki’s newly formed government manipulated the way the news broke by presenting the massacre in the government run newspaper “Hadas Ertra” essentially as a small altercation which, due to misunderstanding, led to a few deaths. It would be years before the true details of the massacre emerged, by which time Isaias Afwerki’s oppressive and authoritarian intent was obvious for all to see.