Category: Reflections
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Eritrea, Tigray, and Ethiopia: Where to from Here?
Passions in the current war (Eritrea and Ethiopia on one side) and Tigray on the other are running high akin to the war of the 1998 to 2000 where the majority in diaspora were settled on the notion of my country, right or wrong. When passions run this high it is rather difficult to distance
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A Conversation between Two Professors: A Tigrayan and An Eritrean
At the outset, Prof. Tedros Kiros declares that, in its fifteen years of existence, African Ascent Television Program never had an interview conducted in Tigrinya language, the mother tongue of the host. As such, the viewer can see the elation visibly in his demeanor. What made it unique, the guest, Prof. Tekle Woldemikael, is the
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Tigray Forces Enter Mekelle City
For a critical media consumer, various media outlets are meant to serve as a way to arrive at the truth as rapidly as possible. As well, to learn more about a particular subject matter of interest. Today, I woke up to write an article on the subject of genocide in Gambella, Ethiopia under the watchful
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Discourse on Eritrea-Tigray Through Personal Praxis
[Editor’s note: Reflections is Beyan Negash’s new column. He selected, edited and presents the following article written by Said on the Awate Forum.] Intro: For decades our region suffered exceptionally, a grim reality. Those who write simply as an expression of fierce resistance to all kinds of tyrannies related to the Horn of Africa do
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Undercurrents of the Eritrean-Tigrai Relation
The contemporary sociopolitical history of Ethiopia, Tigray, and Eritrea is informed by two undercurrents that appear to impact these tripartite entities devastatingly as each attempt to outmaneuver the other in that elusive race toward political hegemonic prominence. Chose to use a recent Tigrinya song that captures the foolishness of the war(s), interspersing it within the
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An Open Letter to My Friend
This story revolves around the early memories of my upbringing that shaped my identity. In all conscience, it is neither a riveting story nor based on exaggerated psychological self-assessment of my past; it is just a modest soul-searching endeavour accompanied by some indulgence in retrospection. Why do I find it important to write about this
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Eritrea: Cries of a Nation on the Brink of Evanescence
The last six months have seen a flurry of diplomatic activities involving most of the Horn-of-Africa countries and some member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). These activities which have included a series of mediation efforts, state visits, summit meetings, and bilateral agreements seem to herald a new phase of regional geopolitics in which alliances
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The Captivating, But Dubious Politics of Ethiopia’s Abiy Ahmed
Since Dr. Abiy Ahmed burst onto the Ethiopian political scene as the country’s new prime minister under five months ago, much has been said and written about his background, vision and reformist agenda as well as the support he has been gaining as a leader. The level of public support that met PM Abiy Ahmed’s
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Eritrean Opposition Movement: The Political Imperative of Self-Renewal
Recent political developments in Ethiopia seem to have generated internal dynamics that promise to fundamentally alter the political landscape in the country and perhaps even in the region. The emergence in April of Ethiopia’s newly elected prime minister, Dr. Abiy Ahmed has potentially opened the way for unprecedented social and political change and appears to
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Eritrea’s Socio-politically Disjointed Generational Succession
Human societies owe their perpetuity to the dynamic process of generational succession in which societal legacy is handed down from one generation to the next often seamlessly and imperceptibly. The legacy that gets transmitted down the generations by this ‘passing-the-baton’ type process encompasses the universal societal attributes of culture, tradition, history, values and beliefs, social
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UN Sanctions Against Eritrea Likely to Outlast Current Regime
Following its annual review of Eritrea sanctions in place since 2009, the UN Security Council (SC) announced on November 14, 2017, its decision to renew the measures for another year. Supported by all but four abstaining Council members, the decision was similar to those of the past seven years in the degree of consensus it
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A Notch Up in Eritrea’s Struggle For Liberty and Justice
Circumstances surrounding a student-led public protest that took place in the Eritrean capital, Asmara on October 31, 2017, were lauded by many citizens as a historical event that marks the beginning of an end of one of the modern world’s ugliest tyrannies. Accounts of the protest were extensively reported by opposition websites and radio stations
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The Bifurcated World of Eritrea’s ‘Caged’ Tyrant
In an era when the world is witnessing unprecedented technological advances, unparalleled prosperity and heightened hopes for enduring global peace, an evil regime in Eritrea continues to destroy a country by ruining its national economy, driving the youthful and educated segments of its population into exile and subjecting the rest to unmitigated repression, servitude and
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Prison Break: A Microcosm of Popular Uprising Against Tyranny
The inspiration for writing this article was drawn from a piece aptly titled “Seventeen years in Prison without Charge” that recently featured on Awate.com. The story of Haj Mohammed Ali Mahmoud the piece narrates is, sadly enough, also the story of thousands of other Eritrean prisoners that are wasting away in PFDJ jails for no
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Hitting the Enemy Where It Hurts the Most
An issue that often comes up in political discussions on Eritrea is whether political change in the country will be achieved through the efforts of domestic forces/elements or those of the exiled opposition movement. A general sense of ongoing debate on the subject seems to suggest that current political opinions are largely based on the
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A Mafia Group Masquerading as Lawful Government
Twentieth-century world history has recorded the rise and fall of powers that waged devastating regional and global wars to conquer and dominate the world. Their ultimate goal was to affirm their self-proclaimed racial supremacy and/or to plunder the national wealth of other societies. The world had also witnessed political systems that set out to impose
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United States Policy On Eritrea: Any Prospects for Change?
The United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs held a subcommittee hearing titled ‘Eritrea: A Neglected Regional Threat’ on September 14, 2016. Participating in the hearing were a two-member panel of witnesses representing the State Department and a three-member panel of expert witnesses. Post-hearing reviews and analyses coming out of the Eritrean diaspora focused mostly
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A Defenseless Regime With Indefensible Record
July 1st this year marked the culmination of a four-year, UN-mandated investigation into human rights violations in Eritrea whereupon the UN concluded that crimes against humanity have been committed by some government institutions and a confidential list of officials. The UN involvement in the case had its genesis in the Eritrean government’s 2001 crackdown on
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Not Friends, Not Enemies – Just Nations With Interests
Reviewing official statements on world perspective that the Government of Eritrea put out periodically over the last 15 years, one would get the impression that the country of Eritrea is somehow the most coveted, yet the most hated and conspired-against nation in the world! Such an impression is bound to prompt the question of why
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The Day of Reckoning
It will have been a year on June 23rd since the UN-appointed Commission of Inquiry on Eritrea (COIE) presented its first report on the human rights situation in the country. The report documented personal testimonies from hundreds of victims and witnesses of a range of human rights violations committed by the Eritrean government “on a