The reason given then was that the region is needed for tourism.
It was later the truth started to emerge, as many Eritrean national service conscripts were assigned to work in the secret farms in Semienawi Bahri, among the maize farm plots of land, growing marijuana for Hashish production.
Some of the conscripts also reported an experimental plots for what they do not know but described it as opium or the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum and may be cocaine or the coca plant (Erythoxylon coca) like.
Recently the Eritrean government built a dam in the Gahtelay region to expand this illicit plant farming.
This indicates, the Eritrean government under Issaias Afeworki is also involved in the illicit drug market in the Middle East and the Horn of Africa, just like the Syrian Bashar al Assad and the Hezbollah terrorists of Lebanon.