Semere Russom, the Eritrean minister of education visited Sudan leading a delegation from his ministry. According to shabait.com, the government website, the minister was on a working visit to Sudan on a mission to share with his Sudanese counterparts the “experience on the provision of educational opportunities to youths who failed to attend classes at the right age due to nomadic pattern of living.”
After two weeks of touring the Sudan, the delegation returned to Eritrea without a member, who is “missing” in Sudan. Abubaker Ali, in charge of the youth educational program, has remained in the Sudan and is in hiding. Gedab News has learned that he is in danger of being deported back to Eritrea where he is feared to face severe consequences.
Abubaker was a member of the United Organization (UO), an offshoot of the Eritrean Liberation Front that returned to Eritrea en masse after independence, hoping for a proper absorption of their organization in the Eritrean government. Most of the UO members have long escaped Eritrea and only a handful remain in Eritrea while others have disappeared mysteriously.
The situation in Eritrea has become tense and the PFDJ is more anxious since UN Resolution 1907 was imposed on Eritrea in December 23, 2009. The resolution imposes travel bans on political and military leaders of the regime, and an asset freeze on anything owned by the government or the ruling party. It also bans the sale of arms to Eritrea.
In order to consolidate its power base, the PFDJ government is making sure that personnel who are not registered members of the ruling party (PFDJ) are pushed out from any government position. Abubaker had not been a member of the party and once he was transferred to the ministry of education, the personnel department have been pressuring him to become a member, which he avoided with different reasoning until he found an opportunity to travel to Sudan where he escaped and is now in hiding.
Adoulis.com has earlier mentioned the escape of a member of the minister’s delegation in Khartoum.
Meanwhile, Sudan attempted to include a bill advanced by Isaias Afwerki, condemining UN Resolution 1907, at the Arab League Foreign Ministers meeting, which convened on Thursday March 25th. But no country agreed to include the Eritrean plea in the summit’s agenda. Subsequently, the Arab League Summit that convened in Sirte, Libya on the 27th and 28th of March adjourned its meeting without mentioning resolution 1907.