Aida Kidane

September 18, 2001 was neither the first time, nor the last time, the administraton of Isaias Afwerki arrested dissident #Eritreans. September 18 is the day the Eritrean government disappeared famous senior government officials, senior party officials, and journalists, beginning decades-long global condemnation and isolation of #Eritrea. 24 years later, the victims remain disappeared. Not only has the government stopped giving answers, the people have stopped asking questions. This is how awate.com’s Gedab News covered the news, and those that followed, at the time.

Ciham Ali Abdu was born 28 years ago today in Los Angeles, CA. She was abducted by the government of #Eritrea, near the border of #Sudan, on December 8, 2012, when she was 15 years old, as she was trying to do what 683,000 #Eritreans have done before and since: escape from the police state of Eritrea. She hasn’t been heard from since. She has had no visitation by family or friends. Attempts to exit the country are so common Eritreans who are caught are imprisoned for months not years. Her prolonged abduction is to punish her father, former Information Minister Ali Abdu, who disassociated himself from the regime in 2012. Her abduction violates many of Eritrea’s domestic laws and international treaty the country is a signatory to. Ciham has spent 12 years and 4 months of her 28 years in this planet (44% of her young life) as a hostage whose whereabouts are unknown @JamesFoleyFund @StateSPEHA

Operation Fenkil, the successful campaign to liberate Massawa, #Eritrea from occupying #Ethiopia, is celebrated annually on February 8. The plays displayed are a reflection of the relationship between the govts of Eritrea and Ethiopia. This is a summary through 2019.

The Short Version. The two dates for the International Conference on Eritrean Studies (ICES) July 2016 and Jan 2025. The question is not why did it not happen* before 2016 and why did it not happen for the years in between (2016-2025.) The question is why 2016? Because, globally and lastingly, the reputation of #Eritrea’s senior government & party leadership had hit rock bottom: they were being accused, in 2016, of having committed Crimes Against Humanity, against their own people, since the day they set foot in Asmara as liberators in 1991. Not just accused but found guilty for it. And some were on their way to ICC when United States (not Russia, not China but United States) torpedoed the effort. The ambassador got the call: “An authoritarian he may be but he protects our interests in the Red Sea” Don’t get it twisted: we want to scare him, not hold him accountable. We have no replacement for him: every self-declared potential replacement is, at best, an unknown. So he remained sanctioned which is to say boxed-in. And he, indeed, was boxed-in, talking to himself (talking to his State media, same thing) until 2018, when Unlikely Abi rode in with his SUV and helped to remove the sanctions. It’s how the West rewarded the Nobel Peace Prize winner, who also happens to have deep knowledge of intelligence services, and is deeply ambitious and legacy-obsessed. But back in 2016– the Conference was part of the government’s image rehabilitation campaign for the regime (remember The Atlantic Council gelemele). Look, we will even partner with the UN office. We will have them sponsor it! See, we are engaged. We encourage diversity of opinion! We are not that bad! That’s why it happened in 2016. So the question is: what is it designed to distract from in 2025? Misdirection is a well-worn strategy of the People’s Front, as it is with any military force. Consider this: the relationship between Eritrea and Ethiopia is at its worst since 2017. In fact, every Eritrean holiday, (specifically the first of the year on the Liberation of Massawa, “Operation Fenkil”) and how said holiday is celebrated is a clue on what Eritrea’s relationship with #Ethiopia is. For example, in 2019 when our relationship with Ethiopia was that of too-close neighbors, the bad guys in Operation Nakfa, we were told, were “foreign powers”: Ethiopia wasn’t mentioned once. Now? @ERiTV_Official is broadcasting a 4-part documentary on Operation Asosa. And FANA TV is tatting the tit. There is that. There is also this: there is no obvious, transparent, peaceful, power succession plan in Eritrea. If (1) at the helm of Ethiopia is an ambitious, thirsty man who feels about the Red Sea as strongly as Trump feels about Panama and (2) there is no ስርሒት "ጽቡቕ ኣሎ ሕማቕ ኣሎ" that is, in case of emergency, break glass plan that every Eritrean citizen knows…. And your response on your policy towards Ethiopia is “what Ethiopia?” And you are saying this to a man who is proud of his country just as you are of yours? And you are the only one allowed to articulate Eritrea’s interest? To repeat: Eritrea’s foreign policy is not an extension of its domestic policy. It’s the other way around. That’s why Isaias Afwerki interviews always start with commentary on global affairs. Then regional. Then local. Yeah, he too is ambitious. And what happens when ambitious men sees each as an obstacle to their greatness? I am sure all this was discussed in one of the 150 break out session at Hotel Asmara Palace. * a similar conference was held in January organized by Eritrean Studies Association Idris Aba Arre, then with the Ministry of Labor, criticized the outcome of “mother tongue education” when there is no curriculum developed in the mother tongue. He was disappeared and hasn’t been heard from since. That’s 23+ years. I wonder if that was also part of the ICES discussion? Of course not. We shall keep it technocratic.

Sad News: @VOATigrigna is reporting that Berhane Abrehe, #Eritrea|s former Minister of Finance who was arrested shortly after he wrote a highly critical book of President Isaias Afwerki’s leadership, has died in prison. gdb.voanews.com/01000000-0af… He was never charged with a crime, nor brought to a court of law. “death by prison” is one of the most common execution tools of the Eritrean regime.