Mr. Kibrom Dafla
, the former manager of Himbol and the Inland Revenue, has failed to return from Italy where his wife resides. Kibrom was a facilitator for the Red Sea Trading Corporation (“09”), the financial arm of the People’s Front for Democracy & Justice (PFDJ), the ruling and only legal party in Eritrea. He managed its clandestine companies in Italy, which included restaurants, import-export concerns and financial institutions, of which Himbol was one.
Kibrom joined the People’s Front in 1975 and was assigned to the Beirut office prior to his move to Italy in 1978, where he stayed until 1995. In 1995, he was transferred to Asmara and managed Himbol Enterprise. In 2005, he was appointed Director of the Inland Revenue (the government’s tax collection bureau) and in 2007 he was named the manager of the ailing Eritrean Airlines where he became the designated fall guy for the airline’s multitudes of operational problems, which were a consequence of an ill-conceived, emotional business plan that he had nothing to do with.
His trip to Italy is following an approved leave of absence. The ruling party’s unofficial rumor mill, known as Bado Seleste (Zero Three), is already disseminating information that he has “stolen a lot of money” in the event that he does not return from Italy. This way, it hopes to soften the blow of the loss of a long time, loyal, senior cadre of the party who has served it for 34 years.
Meanwhile, Lt Colonel Wedi Mqur, infamous for his role as chief of Adi Abeito prison, has disappeared into thin air after many of his colleagues were arrested for “corruption.” Wedi Mqur was accused of being corrupt and cruel by the prisoners of Adi Abeito. He is assumed to have crossed the border to neighboring Sudan or Ethiopia.
“Food Security”
The Eritrean regime no longer promises that it intends to achieve food security; it is claiming that it has achieved food security or, in its parlance, wih’sinet migbi teregagitsu. But the facts on the ground belie this claim.
For one thing, Asmara is now teeming with beggars. Even government offices are visited by them, mostly the elderly who have no means of support. For another, the conscripts in Sawa are being given Wedi Aker bread, made of grain that is barely edible. Meanwhile conscripts in Wia had to be moved to Hashferai because of an infectious disease that broke out at the camp.