Tag: Isaias Afwerki
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Negarit 308: The Ethiopian Red Sea Craze
Over a week ago, I started to record an episode that I didn’t finish. This is what I prepared: For the last five or six months, I have been suffering from a nasty papilloma growth in my nostril. Tomorrow, I will lie on an operation table to get rid of it. Those of you who
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What is the PFDJ problem with the UN?
If you are oblivious to how things work, you risk feeding on every propaganda or rumor and endlessly blaming everyone but yourself. There is a danger of forgetting the root cause, thus point your fingers in the wrong direction. For instance, if you misplace any of your clothes, you would make sure to check the
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Brezidenti Isaias Named to Lead IGAD
Usually, there are a few people who get knee jerk reaction whenever Isaias is mentioned in a negative tone or criticized. Given the situation at home, I wish they get used to it. Isaias is not your pet, but a man who is ruthlessly ruling Eritreans unelected, for a too long. It’s better to swallow
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Isaias Calls for Intifada in Eritrea
Recently a usual “interview” of Isaias Afwerki was aired on Eritrean television; none of the people I talked to expected something new, but somehow all had the urge to listen to it. The interview was widely spread, thanks to the many Youtubers who rushed to publish it. People speak to the public because they have
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A Secret Letter To President Donald Trump
Satire: republished twice since 2016, and the following is a slightly updated version of it.11 Eight years ago, on November 8, 2008, I published Isaias’ congratulatory letter to the then president elect, Obama. On Nov. 9, 2016, I published Isaias’ congratulatory letter to president-elect Donald Trump. You will notice the two letters seem to have
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Isaias and Abiy: The Fallout
Often times, news surfaces only to be quickly subdued and forgotten, though it occasionally reemerges in surprising ways. Below is a brief list of key events: After the liberation of Massawa in 1990, Isaias returned from London where he attended a meeting between the TPLF and EPLF to discuss the future of the two countries.
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A Corporal Warned Eritrea!
In 2021, Negarit 147, I raised the issue of SFO Safer, an oil tanker that was stranded across the Hodeida, a Yemeni port on the Red Sea since 2015. At the time, it carried over a million barrels of oil. SFO Safer used as a storage tank for Yemeni oil that was piped from the
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The Eritrean Dilemma with Its President
Isaias Afwerki. The most mentioned. The most criticized. The most admired, and at the same time, the most despised. He’s a prominent character in most dialogues, debates and discussions among Eritreans. Some admire him as the most accomplished person because he successfully led the struggle for the independence of Eritrea. To others, he’s notorious for
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Biniam Girmay: He was ours and he’s still ours
The three-card Monte, known to us as Telate-werega, is a classical swindling trick. There is also the wheel of fortune, known as shertek bertek in some areas, and shetekh-betekh in others. That is the localized pronunciation from the Arabic shortek-bekhtek, meaning ‘your decision and luck.’ Close to the grand Mosque in Agordat, crowds gathered
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The Eritrean Ruling Party Apologizes to Meley
Twelve years ago, a creative friend came up with a T-shirt design of the original Eritrean flag; I used it as my profile. Facebook has a Memories section where it brings up old posts. You can either ignore it to be forgotten or give it a new life by commenting on it. That is what
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Re-aligned with the PFDJ but disappointed
After the downfall of the Derg regime in Ethiopia and the liberation of Eritrea in 1991, the Sudanese government curtailed the movement of Eritrean opposition organizations on its soil. Denied the opportunity to operate from Sudan, most moved to Ethiopia and stayed there until Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018. Several Eritrean opposition organizations
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Will they make peace?
Culturally, Abyssinia still clings to its archaic, arguably primitive, mindset. Attempts at modernization have not yielded the needed results. From early on, the developed West has portrayed the nation as a Christian island amidst a Muslim sea. But the unlimited support and goodwill the developed West provided didn’t help much. Since the Middle Ages, the
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Unsolicited Advice to Brighed N’Hamedu (BNH)
Introduction. The birth of Brighed N’Hamedu (BNH), in Cologne, Germany, in 2022, has greatly energized justice-seeking Eritrean youth in the Diaspora. It has been one of the current encouraging developments. The BNH slogan from” Diaspora to Asmara” has given a renewed hope and breath of fresh air to all those who aspire to see regime
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Book Review: A Memoir of Eritrean Freedom Fighter Mesfin Hagos
Book Review An African Revolution Reclaimed: A Memoir of Eritrean Freedom Fighter Mesfin Hagos. By Mesfin Hagos with Awet Tewelde Weldemichael, 2023, Trenton, NJ: Red Sea Press. I-x, pp. 434 plus appendices and index. This is a worthwhile read that provides much-needed information on the Eritrean armed struggle (named as African revolution) and on the
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From the archives: How About Then?
[Editor’s note: This article was published on August 14, 2010, it’s being republished] …And my companion subscribed to it in his own name and-with a smile-in mine too, stretched his right arm up along the wall and leaned his cheek upon it, shutting his eyes. But I did not wait to see the end of that
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China’s Great Wall, Eritrea’s Fence Wall
Last Saturday, Isaias hastily met the Sudanese envoy Ambassador Daffalah, and soon left for China. Not many discussed that visit, but many Eritrean (and Ethiopian) social media platforms were buzzing with Isaias’ visit to China. The Eritrean fence wall concluded his visit and has already returned home. PFDJ media and its affiliate trolls were so
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Unelected President, Imposed Pundit
Isais Afwerki of Eritrea: an unelected dictator tells Sudan how to solve their problems
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The Bloody African Horn Region
This week, both Eid and Fasiga came a few days apart; on this occasion, I wish Christians and Muslims who finished Lent and Ramadan, Happy Holidays time. Hopefully, the fasting cleared some bad air and you will have spiritually fulfilling days ahead. For Eritreans, when Christian and Muslim feasts coincide, they become optimistic believing it
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Sudan Borrowed the Coal Fire From Ethiopia
The events that have damaged Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Somalia for decades is still devastating the entire region. While some of those in power leave others fixed to the chairs and don’t seem to be leaving at all. Sadly, the people who have no power, die, kill, lose their properties, and jump from one confrontation
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Horn of Africa’s Never-Ending Tragedy
On March 2, 2023, Gedab News reported that four people lost their lives when Ethiopia celebrated the 127th 1896 anniversary of the victory of Adwa, a battle fought against the Italian colonial army. However, like many atrocities before the death of four people, including a student and as teacher were killed, no one was held