Tag: Sudan
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Iska Warran, Somalis; Tread Carefully!
Drawing from Eritrea’s historical experience, the essay analyzes Somalia’s collapse, Somaliland’s resilience, Ethiopia’s controversial push for sea access, and the broader militarization of the Horn of Africa. It warns against foreign interference, empty nationalism, and elite-driven politics, advocating instead for people-centered dialogue and pragmatic, incremental solutions.
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Somaliland, Somalia, and the Ethics of Non‑Alignment
Recognition, Reality, and Responsibility in the Horn of Africa The recognition of Somaliland would mark a historic moment—akin to Eritrea or South Sudan—not a geopolitical earthquake, but a shift whose ripple effects could extend far beyond its borders. Global politics has a way of humbling our certainties: the developments we dismiss as peripheral often become
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Refugees Speak Back: Unsettling Exile and Home
In 2007, the Red Sea Press published Sadia Hassanen’s Repatriation, Integration, or Resettlement? The Dilemmas of Migration among Eritrean Refugees in Eastern Sudan. Based on her doctoral dissertation, the book quickly became one of the most important studies of Eritrean refugees in Kassala and surrounding camps. It asked a simple yet unsettling question: what or where
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Horn of Africa: A Unity Deferred: Between Memory and Possibility
The Horn of Africa remains one of the world’s most fragile political landscapes. State legitimacy is contested, nation-building is stalled or unraveling, and war routinely eclipses peace. Ethiopia and Sudan, its two largest states, are engulfed in civil war and political upheaval. Somalia continues to fracture, with little more than nominal central authority. Eritrea and
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Dr. Abdella AlNafisi’s Thirty-year Sleep
By the end of the 1990s, the Islamist wave had reached its ebb. In 1988 Iraq invaded Kuwait and unleashed disaster. The USA arrayed its arsenal, and allies launched Desert Storm to reverse Saddam’s invasion. That heralded the beginning of a long, unstable era for the Middle East and beyond. In 1989 Sudan’s Islamist National
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The Eritrean Regime and Its Neighbors
On May 24, 1991, Eritreans achieved their long-sought independence, formally recognized on May 24, 1993. Yet, true freedom remained elusive. The organization that became the ruling government legally solidified its hold—not through popular consent, but through brute force, injustice, and external alliances and considerations. Those early days were euphoric; few foresaw the wars and displacements
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The Horn of Africa States Ethiopia’s Undiplomatic Faux Pas
It was always clear that Ethiopia’s false historical narrative would one day catch up with it. The country that was Abyssinia adopted Africa’s historical Greek name, Ethiopia, in 1932. It currently proves every sunrise and every sunset that it cannot hold the many nations it had held together by force in the past. The war
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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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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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It Is Ramadan, Make Peace With the PFDJ!
At least for a month we have to try hard to live a spiritual life. It’s in our tradition, culture, and religion. Therefore, in the spirit of Ramadan I am making peace with the Eritrean regime for a day. Ramadan is here and it triggers memories, not only of prayers and supplication but also its
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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
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Sudan: Detention of Fifth-Generation Eritrean Refugees
Until the 19th century, the Horn of Africa was one vast region where communities knew their farming, grazing, and dwelling lands. But towards the end of the century nation states with boundaries appeared. Before that, Kings, warlords, and colonizers knew where to collect taxes from, but the people cared less on who the lord was,
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The Horn of Africa: Unchanging Political Seasons
(Reading Time: 7 minutes) Historically, the African region that contains Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somaliland, and Somalia are considered Horn of Africa countries though Sudan doesn’t belong to that geography. But the above countries are so much related and influenced by each other. These countries have no properly defined geographical limits, therefore, they are haphazardly
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Janjaweed and Fano: Ethiopian-Sudanese Twins
Eritrea, the modern-day Gulag, locked physically and psychologically, where screaming is a whisper. The ears hear but so terrified, they fail to process what they hear. The eyes observe events secretly but pretend what they see is not real. It’s a country of silence where talking is risky, and costly. A hermetic state strictly guarded
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Ethiopia, Eritrea and Sudan in Turmoil
After three-years of chaos, Sudan is still going through a precarious political situation where the central government has little control over the peripheries outside the Khartoum metropolis. Armed insurgencies and unrest engulf Kordofan and Darfur regions, only the latter is relatively calm due to the presence of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a militia group
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Alleged Consultation to Form a Military Wing Unfounded
Gedab Investigative Report: On July 30, 2021, an Eritrean website reported about a “consultation between Eritrean entities.” It further reported that “several Eritrean opposition organizations were engaged in preparatory meeting to form “a wide political and military entity to topple the Asmara regime.” It added, “the Khartoum consultations is led by Mesfin Hagos, an ex-Eritrean defense
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Eritrea’s Bittersweet Memory of A 30-Year Struggle
Eritrea has bittersweet memory of a 30-year struggle that was eked out by the botched 30-years of Governance. In 1935, little did Italy know that its decision to invade Ethiopia would lead to a World War II. Little did Italy know, too, that the Eritrean Askaris it hired to do the invasion of Ethiopia would also abandon
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Negarit 127: the Mountain That Gave Birth to a Mouse
Ramadan Kareem. This is a special month, and it brings memories though most of my childhood I lived under curfew. Someday I will tell you about characters I associate with Ramadan—Amm Bekhetiay Mohammed Drar Hella, Saleh Ewaale and others. But for toady a simple wish will do; Ramadan Kareem. In addition, I am wishing the
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Get Prepared Before The Flood Arrives
In the Senhit region, all the way to the West, there are rock mounds, there are ancient conical tukul-shaped pyramids covered in fist size stones scattered in many places. They are covered in black stones, rarely with white. I discovered they were graves of notable warriors or clan leaders. The locals told me the colors
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News and Information, Life and Property
My generation grew up consuming news. In Teashops, particularly in the morning, radios blasting, news bulletins from BBC Arabic, VoA, Monte Carlo, and many others. Every artisan on the streets had radios on the shopfronts. Each day I walked to school through the textile and grocery shops, tailors, tin artifact makers who made pots (jebena),