Category: Analysis
-
Eritrea 2024: What Monocracy And Pragmatism Yield 30 Years Later
Due to huge blind spot and hubris, Eritrea’s ruling party (PFDJ) considers its weakest link—foreign policy—its strongest asset. But catalog the outcome of its foreign policy since 1991–its policy towards Sudan, Yemen, Ethiopia, USA, Djibouti, Qatar, UAE, —and all you see is a debris of blunders engineered by self-conceit. This, I submit to you, is…
-
Trump Election Explained To Eritreans (in Europe, Canada, Australia)
It’s not about Kamala Harris. Or that she was a woman. Or that she was Indian-Black. After all, she got more votes than Obama (male) did in 2012, and about as much as Trump (white) did in 2020. Any generic Democrat candidate who was thrust in without the benefit of having to go through the…
-
Enter The Judge, Exit The Veterans
For Eritrea and Ethiopia, 2021 was an eventful year, which is to say a frequent shower-upper guest showed up to screech hello: hello back, WAR. And although there are contestants still arguing with the non-existent referee that he blew the Game Over whistle prematurely, it appears people are eager for finality to something that won’t…
-
Rethinking the Ethio-Eritrean peace deal
Of all the words that have been used to describe the Ethio-Eritrean peace deal, surprising is the one that I agree the most with, however what surprises me isn’t necessarily what many have been surprised by. I didn’t believe that DIA [Dictator Isaias Afwerki] would agree to it but I wasn’t surprised that he did.…
-
Eritrea Vision 2020: Building An Effective Civil Society
The Ethio-Eritrean rapprochement is in its second year. The initial optimism has faded because the Eritrean regime has gone back to its old habit again; and old habits die hard. The border remains closed (the Eritrean government closed it!) without any explanation from either side. Trade has halted at the borders and even Ethiopian merchant…
-
The Russians Are Here
But we lost something: our latest Dr. Newitol and a few articles authored by ED. We will do some forensics and recover those we can. And those we can’t. Well, you know how there are some of you who like to save files as pdf to print and read? If you have them, particularly the…
-
Ethiopian Narrative on Eritrea Is Back With Vengeance
The Ethiopian NarrativeIt goes something like this. Since time immemorial, Eritrea has always been part of Ethiopia. The names (“Eritrea”, “Ethiopia”) may be different but the people of Eritrea and Ethiopia have always been intertwined. Eritrea, the Land of the Sea (Midri Bahri) may have had a viceroy, but the king was always in Ethiopia…
-
SBS ትግርንያ ፡ ቃለ መሕትት ምስ ሳልሕ ዩኑስ
This is a transcription of the interview of Saleh Younis conducted by SBS Radio Tigrinya on December 16. Many thanks to Eritrea Digest super fan who listened to and transcribed the interview which suffered from bad audio, which is entirely the fault of the interviewee. Thanks as well to interviewer Beyene Semere. በየነ: ሰማዕትና ሰማዕቲ…
-
Despite the Rogue States, HRC Is Still A Good Thing
The government of Eritrea, which was elected to the Human Rights Council (HRC) by default and in contradiction to the UN’s minimum requirements for a country to join the HRC, has issued an editorial expressing its pleasure and gratitude for being allowed to join this club with no standards. The government further describes its dismal…
-
Eritrea In Pictures: Geneva, Massawa, Asab
In a hall full to capacity, Eritrean demonstrators for justice assembled to plan the next steps for taking their movement forward. A day earlier, on August 31, a large crowd variously estimated at 2,000 to 3,000, had marched the streets of Geneva calling on the Government of Eritrea to lift the state of siege it…
-
Eritrea-Ethiopia: A Confederation We Didn’t Vote On
A confederation is an institutional arrangment in which the policies of different districts are, at least in part, influenced by the preferences of voters from other districts in the confederation. In practice, this is usually accomplished through a complex array of overlapping jurisdictions, representative governments at different levels, and a legal system that allocates decision-making…
-
Eritrea: Betrayals and Pyrrhic Victories
What was the war about? And what is this peace about? And why did peace happen in June 2018 and not, for example, in November 2004? Why was there a “border war” in May 1998 to begin with? What is our peace dividend? It was not about borders or demarcation. If it was, 7 weeks…