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[Zmeselo]

ERITREA: Resilient Against All Enemies, Seen or Unseen

By Aman Nebiat


PM Abiy Ahmed and President Isaias Afewerki at the reopening of the Eritrean Embassy in Addis Ababa (TIKSA NEGERI / REUTERS)

The month of July 2020 has ended leaving in its tracks some of the most extraordinary historical events that are shaping the Horn of Africa. Two years ago June 3rd, 2018 to be specific, Ethiopia’s new party led by PM Dr. Abiy Ahmed announced that Ethiopia would “fully accept and implement” the Eritrea Ethiopia Border Commission’s (EEBC) ruling and Algiers Agreements and it was reciprocated with a warm welcome by Eritrea’s leadership ushering in a wave of diplomatic and cultural events that rapidly engulfed not only the two countries but the whole of Horn of Africa region and it continues to do so to this day [1].

The June 3rd, 2018 peace overture and a call for truce from Ethiopian Prime Minister to his Eritrean counterparts seemed a happenstance at the time, but it was in the making since the vile and acrimonious now deposed clique, TPLF invaded Eritrea on May 6, 1998 under the false pretext of a border war. it was kicked in to gear when President Isaias Afewerki on his 2018 New Year’s televised message to the nation informed all peace loving people of the Horn of Africa that the TPLF is officially dead saying “WEYANE GAME OVER”.

The minority clique TPLF came to power with extensive weapons supply, military and media training and heavy battle ground support by the EPLF as well as the other Ethiopian rebel groups such as the OLF/ONLF. Soon after the EPLF liberated Addis Ababa from the stronghold of the Derg forces in May 1991, it handed the TPLF keys to the Ethiopian Palace “4-Kilo”.

True to its nature, the TPLF immediately started working for Tigray independence by implementing ethnic federalism system. To guarantee the sucess of its plan, the regime included what is famously known as “Article-39” in the new Ethiopian constitution and gave all ethnic groups the right to hold a referendum and declare independence if they chose to do so. [2]

Next was for the Tigray regional administration to produce a redrawn map of the historical colonial-era borders between Eritrea and Ethiopia incorporating large parts of sovereign Eritrean territory into the new map. Similarly, the new maps of Tigray also incorporated large areas from the neighboring Ethiopian administrative regions of Welkait (ወልቃይት), Wello (ወሎ), Begemdir (በገምድር) and Raya (ራያ).

However for the now beheaded and buried agenda famously known as “Tigray the Great” (ዓባይ ትግራይ) to work, Eritrea had to be invaded, its battle hardened government had to be toppled and replaced with a puppet government and Eritrea had to be annexed with its two ports. Well, the reality was quite the opposite as all came to pass and Eritrea is still standing strong while the TPLF is awaiting its proper burial.

Back to January 2018, when President Isaias Afewerki said “WEYANE GAME OVER”, it was with full knowledge of the work that has been done since 1998 in collaboration with all marginalized and oppressed Ethiopians to eradicate a group that has been a malignant cancer to the Horn of Africa. As such the 20 years of arduous and careful incision like surgical removal of TPLF was implemented based on the book titled “Modern Art of War” written by President Isaias Afewerki and directed by EPLF, PM Abiy Ahmed & Ato Lemma Megersa as lead actors with Qerro/Fanno as supporting cast members chasing away the mutant TPLF villains from the Ethiopian Palace 4-Killo with rocks and sticks ending the first part of the movie in Mekele where the dazed, confused and wounded scoundrels are left to nurse their mortal wounds.[3]

What followed after this was initial visits at the ministerial level of both Ethiopia and Eritrea to set the stages where the movie was to be viewed and the grand opening was kicked off in Asmara where the lead actors Dr. Abiy Ahmed and Ato Lemma Megersa were warmly welcomed and treated with so much love and adoration followed by President Isaias Afewerki and his delegation’s visit to Ethiopia where he was also welcomed like a king and a beloved comrade that stunned the world.


PM Abiy Ahmed and President Isaias Afewerki joining joyous celebrations at the Millennium Hall in Addis Ababa

While celebrations were underway, other historical events were also taking place signing mutual bilateral agreements on trade and security etc. by both sides, the resumption of flights between Asmara and Addis Ababa after 20 years and most notably peace between Somalia, Djibouti and Kenya with Eritrea just to mention a few. The icing on the cake was however, when Dr. Abiy Ahmed petitioned on behalf of Eritrea for the Weyane/US imposed unjust and illegal sanctions on Eritrea to be lifted, with Egypt, Somalia, Kenya, and Djibouti throwing in their support.

With the public busy celebrating, the second part of the movie started filming featuring this time a “Yellow Helicopter” as the main character blasting a loud music

Yeqen Jiboch, yeqen jiboch Whatcha gonna do, Whatcha gonna do..,

rounding up former corrupt TPLF officials including the notorious ex-communications minister Bereket Simon, ex-head of METEC military firm Kinfe Dagnew and others like wild herd and apprehending them in places such as Addis Ababa, Awassa etc. and others trying to flee the country through the Ethiopia-Sudan border. These apprehended criminals and murderers were of course brought to justice and most are serving prison time charged with corruption, murder, extortion, rape etc.


Ex-head of Military firm METEC and Ex-communications Minister Bereket Simon apprehended for corruption/crimes

A year later, the ouster of Al-Bashir, another hideous and criminal friend of TPLF was a boost to regional peace. PM Abiy Ahmed’s nomination and award of the Nobel Peace Prize for his contribution for bringing the 20 year no-war-no-peace situation with Eritrea to a resolution was another highlight. In his acceptance lecture, PM Abiy proudly told the committee and guests that

Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses… fellow Ethiopians, fellow Africans. I am honored to be here with you today and grateful for the Norwegian Nobel committee for recognizing and encouraging to my contribution to a peaceful resolution of the border dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea. I accept this award on behalf of Ethiopians and Eritreans and especially those who made the ultimate sacrifice in the cause of peace. Likewise, I accept this award on behalf of my partner and comrade in peace President Isaias Afewerki whose good will, trust were vital in ending the two decade deadlock between our countries.

[4]

Fast forward to July 2020, history is repeating itself. Despite Covid-19 pandemic and travel limitations, President Isaias Afewerki visited Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt and discussed local and regional issues in the Horn of Africa. Facilitating a tri-patriate dialogue and bringing a resolution to the issue of the GERD (Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam) and access to Nile River involving Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt is the most notable achievements of his trips hailed by numerous diplomatic circles.

As if these an ending historical moments are not enough for the month of July, there seems to be a few more trickling ones. One is that, after foiling a well-coordinated coup attempt and quelling the unrest ignited by the murder of a well-known Oromia region artist Hachalu Hundessa orchestrated, funded and backed by the old TPLF group and their henchmen, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed visited Eritrea and observed the SAWA Graduation Rehearsals of the 33rd round of the National Service.

While the criminal TPLF clique did everything in its power and left no stone unturned to demonize and criminalize the National Service calling it Slavery, Exploitation etc., and targeted the conscripts with unrelenting campaigns to demoralize and deny them access to improve their lives, PM Abiy Ahmed did the complete opposite of that. He visited the training camp, saluting the army commanders and soldiers showing them a brotherly respect which is an assurance saying “We are comrades in Regional Security”.


PM Abiy Ahmed welcomed at Sawa Military Camp by Eritrea Army commanders

This is a complete shift in political and ideological mindset by Ethiopia towards Eritrea. In an interview with one of Ethiopia’s local Tigrigna language outlets, PM Abiy Ahmed describes Eritrea as a complementary force rather than a foe saying

…To tell the truth the fact that the Eritrean Government is a force of peace is becoming more apparent not only in Ethiopia but globally. Wherever one goes, the belief is that the Eritrean Government is a true partner in peace and development.

This sentiment is echoed as well by the US government’s recognition of Eritrea’s positive role in combating terrorism at a regional and international levels in its 2019 Reports on terrorism report.

At the end, Eritrea’s achievements in the fight against Covid-19 are worth nothing. With zero deaths recorded to date, Eritrea has contained the pandemic thanks to random and extensive testing. Additionally, while all commercial and trading establishments have stopped, food production including in rural areas, farming and animal husbandry supply of grocery stores, pharmacies and banks are open and continue to provide services. This is in addition to the continued support of food, basic supplies and emergency needs provided free of charge to those who need such services.


Military and Covid-19 Task Force members organizing basic food supplies to be delivered all over Eritrea

John 8:32 in the bible says

And the truth shall set you free,

as such relying on their experience of resilience and patience harnessed during the time of armed struggle, Eritreans confronted the border conflict with Ethiopia with courage and strong will.

Eritreans have had the truth on their side and despite all odds and grave injustices committed on them by the world powers, they patiently held to the believe that however long it takes

truth always wins at the end

and win they did.

They won peace and their peace is spilling over to their neighbors and changing global perspective on Eritrea as the

Island of Peace.

References:

[1] Peace overture: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-44376298

[2] EPLF soldiers liberating Addis Ababa:

[3] https://newbusinessethiopia.com/nbe-blo ... ush-again/

[4] PM Abiy Ahmed wins Nobel Peace Prize:

The writer can be reached at [email protected]

[Awash]

"ኣይከሰርናን"።
"ኖእ ከሲርኩም 'ባ"

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[Awash]

Zombie,
Made in Eritrea.

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[Zmeselo]

ኣብ ዞባ ጋሽ-ባርካ፡ ካብ 3ይ ሰሙን ወርሒ ሓምለ ብዝርግሐን መጠንን እኹል ዝናብ ይወቅዕ ስለዘሎ፡ ንጥፈታት ክረምታዊ ሕርሻ ብጽቡቕ ይሰላሰል ኣሎ።
(Paulos Netabay: @PNetabay)

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ከረን ጻዕዳ


Around Kidisti Mariam Church in Asmara
(Ghideon Musa: @GhideonMusa)

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Some of Eritrea's honey & grape produce.
(Frankfurter Junge 2: @shaebiaeritrea2)

[Zmeselo]

Malaria in Eritrea: Marching Towards Elimination

Written by Ruth Abraham

http://www.shabait.com/articles/nation- ... imination-

Articles



Malaria is one of the most common endemics in the world. For a long time, it has been one of the most frequent causes of death worldwide.

But with time, many developed countries have managed to control or eliminate it. Currently, the world is marching toward a total eradication of the disease by helping developing countries to apply preventive and treatment systems.

According to the 2019 World Health Organization (WHO) report on malaria; in 2018, an estimated 228 million cases of malaria occurred worldwide, compared with 251 million cases in 2010 and 231 million cases in 2017. Most of the cases in 2018 were in the WHO African Region followed by the WHO South-East Asia Region, with 3.4% of the cases. Plasmodium falciparum is the most prevalent malaria parasite in the WHO African Region, accounting for 99.7% of estimated malaria cases in 2018.

Globally, the elimination net is widening, with more countries moving towards zero indigenous cases: in 2018, 49 countries reported fewer than 10,000 such cases, up from 46 countries in 2017 and 40 countries in 2010. The number of countries with fewer than 100 indigenous cases – a strong indicator that elimination is within reach – increased from 17 countries in 2010 to 25 countries in 2017 and 27 countries in 2018.

On the one hand, if malaria case incidence and mortality rate remained the same as those in 2000, globally there would be 320 million cases and nearly 1 million malaria deaths in 2018. Instead, there were an estimated 228 million malaria cases and 405,000 malaria deaths in 2018. These represent about 30% fewer cases and 60% fewer deaths in 2018 than would have been the case had levels of malaria incidence and malaria death remained similar to those in 2000. While the gains to date are impressive, the global malaria challenge remains enormous, and the rate of progress is slowing down.

The Ministry of Health of Eritrea (MoH) has targeted malaria as one of the diseases that must be eliminated, being the serious public health problem it has been for a long time. To do so, the National Malaria Control Program (NMCP) and other partners have been following steady prevention and treatment mechanisms to stop the spread of the disease using different techniques, such as vector control, insecticide-treated mosquito nets, indoor residual spraying (IRS) of insecticides and Larval source management. Based on these achievements, the WHO Global Technical Strategy for Malaria 2016–2030 lays the foundation for further significant reductions in mortality and incidence by at least 90% over the coming 15 years, with elimination of malaria projected for a further 35 countries.

Since 1998, Eritrea has shown unstable cases and deaths of malaria. But generally, it has so far succeeded to show a major loop toward malaria elimination. Technically, the earliest stage of the fight against the disease is to control the surge of morbidity and mortality due to malaria. After it is controlled and the cases are reduced greatly, both spatially and numerically, the country or zone is said to be marching to elimination, that is, pre-elimination stage, where cases are further reduced in some areas or zones, also known as sub-national elimination. This stage is where Eritrean Fight against malaria is currently passing through to the advanced stage, which is, scoring zero local cases. Moreover, the global elimination of the disease, as targeted by WHO, is called eradication -- encountering no malaria-related cases at all. In order to claim that a subzone, zone or a country has eliminated malaria, it has to show a zero malaria morbidity and mortality for 36 months in a row. Nevertheless, in case there are imported cases, a prevention of re-introduction is carried out across border towns and villages. That is why we say Eritrea has controlled it and gone all the way near elimination but it has not been announced as a free country either.



Moreover, the Eritrean NMCP, established in 1995, has managed to achieve a great deal of malaria cases decline from 1997 onward. In 1998, the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) partnership was launched aiming to reduce malaria by half by 2010. Similarly, the NMCP developed a national 5 year plan (2000-2004) to reduce malaria morbidity and mortality by 80%. According to the 2016 MDGs report, a remarkable progress has been made in reducing both the incidence of and death from malaria. Malaria cases declined from 53 per 1,000 people in 1998 to 5 per 1,000 in 2004, but increased to 13 per 1000 in 2013. During the period 1998-2013 the incidence of malaria declined by an average of 9.4% per year. Due to this trend, it was projected to further decline to 12 per 1,000 at the end of 2015. Similarly, malaria deaths declined from 20% in 1998 to 0.004% in 2013 and declined to 0.002 at the end of 2015. This ranked Eritrea as one of Africa’s exemplary countries in malaria control. In 2016, Eritrea received the African Leaders Malaria Alliance award for its success in achieving millennium development goals.

According to the NMCP, Eritrea has a three-tier health care delivery system.

1. Primary level, constituting of community-based health services, health stations, health centers and community hospitality.

2. Secondary level, constituting Zoba and sub zebra hospitals.

3. Tertiary level encompasses national referral hospitals which also serve as national centers of excellence for specialized training, education and research.

The health sector is composed of public and private health care providers. There are 28 hospitals, 13 community hospitals, 35 health centers and 186 health stations. As for the specific organization of malaria control program,

Eritrea has set a strategic development plan (2017-2021), which is organized at several layers of sub-organizations -- national, zonal, sub zonal and community levels. Each has designated functions in the system, complementing one another.

When inclined to elimination, the core intervention that must be implemented in addition to the former interventions and treatments is surveillance followed by further treatment. Despite upsurges in some sub-zones, Eritrea has made a commendable progress and is further striving up the ladder through the pre-elimination stage to achieve a score of zero local transmissions.

October is a month known for spiking malaria morbidity and mortality. Due to the Covid 19 pandemic, people are in partial lock down and health care systems all around the world are caught up with fighting the pandemic. In Eritrea, the spread of the pandemic remains relatively low so far. Still, the focus will inevitability be swayed, to some degree, from other endemic diseases like malaria.

The local activities of larval source management on community basis and the awareness raising discourses have been halted due to the partial lock down and social distancing measures. Though the larval management can be done by spraying relevant insecticides on puddles, the effects of the current situation may arise later because as Mr. Selam said,

people tend to stop taking the cautious malaria guidelines as they observe major cases decline.

In his address of the issue of malaria during the Covid 19 pandemic, Mr. Selam Mihretab, the manager of National Malaria Control Program at MoH said,

We can’t be definite about the effects of the pandemic on the malaria prevention and control activities because we have not done a thorough research. However, according to some reports from zonal and sub-zonal health centers, in the past five months, except in Gash Barka Region, new malaria cases have greatly decreased. In any case, we have carried out an interview with Eri-Tv recently to remind people of malaria threats in case people neglect the disease due to the trending Covid 19 pandemic.

Therefore, though Eritrea has succeeded to control the malaria endemic, it is no time to relax. It is actually now that we need to work harder to preserve the achieved results and keep streaming in the lane of successfully eliminating the disease.

[Zmeselo]

1000 ግዜ ሰምዕኻዮ ዘይጽገብ ጽሩይ ከም ናይ ንግሆ ሓቂ ... (c/o @shaebiaeritrea2)

Ato Ghirmai Ghebremariam, former Ambassador to the US & South Sudan. Now, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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[Awash]

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[Temt]

Thanks brother Zmeselo!

[Temt]

"ሓመድ ድበ ዕስለ" ብ ኣወል ስዒድ

[Temt]

ጥሉል ክራማት
By Efrem Ghede

ክራማት ሎሚ ዓመት ደንጉዩ እዩ ጀሚሩ። ሻቕሎት'ውን ፈጢሩ ነይሩ። ኣብዘን ዝሓለፋ ሸውዓተ መዓልቲታት ግን መዓልታዊ ጀበብ ይብል ኣሎ። ኣብ ኣስመራ ንኣብነት ቀትርን ለይትን፡ ዝበዝሐ'ኳ ብለይቲ፡ ምህራም ኣየቋረጸን። እዚ ወቕቲ መጀመርታ 90ታት፡ ድሕሪ ናጽነት ኤርትራ ዝነበረ ጥሉል ክራማትን ተስፋታት ናጽነትን ኣዘኻኺሩኒ። ማእቶት ንወፍረሉ ዝነበርና እዋን ዝነበረ ክራማት!፧
ጸሓይ ብደበና ካብ ትሽፈን ሰሙና ሓሊፉ። ንላዕሊ ምስ እትጥምት፡ እቲ ሰማያዊ ሰማይ፡ ምሉእ ብምሉእ ጻዕዳ ተሸፊኑ ይርኣየካ።
እዚ ርሑስ ክራማት ኣብ መላእ ሃገር እዩ። ኣብታ ዝናብ ዳራጋ ዘይዘንባ ዓሰብ ከይተረፈ፡ ጥሉል ክራማት ኣሎ። ክራማት፡ ነዚ ርሂጹ ዝበልዕ ዓርኪ መሬቱ ህዝብና፣ ነዚ ጥብ ዝበለት ማይ ከዋህልል ከይደቀሰ ዝሓድር መንግስትና፡ ጻማን ሞሳን እዩ።
ጽባሕ፡ መንገዲ ኣጣጢሕና፡ ማይ ኣዋህሊልና፡ መኣዲ ቐሪብና. . . ዓስብኻ'ዩ ክንብሎ ነዚ ሓላል ህዝቢ። ነዚ ኩሉ የለን ክኢሉ፡ ካብ መትከሉ ምንቕ ዘይበለ ህዝቢ ኤርትራ።
እዚ እዋን ናይ ጻማ እዋን'ዩ። ኣብ ታሪኽ፡ ጸሊም ታሪኽ ገዲፍካ ካብ ምኻድ ዝኸፍእ የለን። ኣብቲ ሰፊሕ ጻዕዳ እታ ንጣብ ማክያ ጎሊሓ እያ እትርአ። ዝሓለፈ ቃንዛን ስቓይን፡ ብመኸተ ህዝቢ ኤርትራ እዩ ጽዕዩ፣ ምስቲ ዘይጸዓድ መሪሕነቱ።
በሉ፡ በለስ ክንጋብዘኩም። በለስን ኪፍኪፍታ ማይን ዘይርድኦዶ ኣሎና ኰይኑ።