Category: Analysis
-
Elections and Children of the Horn
When you hear Horn of Africa all you are thinking is drought, famine and conflict. But wait: this is the birth of humanity. It is the area that ancient Egyptians called “Punt” (land of gods); it is where humans became humans more than 100,000 years ago; it is where the bridge, Bab el Mendeb, for…
-
Why Did Amina Mohammed Lose A Sure Thing?
Writing for Aljazeera, Hamza Mohammed gave a lot of reasons why Amina Mohammed, Kenya’s foreign minister, who was the favorite to win the Capo di tutti capi of the African Union, lose. Here they are, in his own words: Kenya did not make its stand on the disputed territory of Western Sahara clear. When lobbying…
-
PFDJ’s Trial in the Streets of Geneva
For the second year in a row, a large gathering of Eritreans congregated in Geneva to voice their opinion on the issue of whether senior government and party officials in Eritrea are guilty of egregious crimes against the Eritrean people. The occasion is the ordinary session of the UN’s Human Rights Council whose Commission of…
-
Eritrea-Ethiopia War: Role Reversal
[spider_facebook id=”4″]In prior wars, Ethiopia has used its media and diplomatic contacts to define the war (“Eritrean aggression”), to demand that the world take measures to punish the aggressor and to rally Ethiopians for war. Throughout, much to the frustration of its people, Eritrea was quiet, pledging that truth will eventually surface.The battle that broke…
-
PFDJ’s Eritrea: Neither Boots Nor Pushkin
[spider_facebook id=”4″]As widely reported, the UN Commission of Inquiry which was set up to investigate the human rights situation in Eritrea has last week announced that Eritrean authorities have committed crimes against humanity, which, inter alia, includes crimes of enslavement, unlawful imprisonment, enforced disappearance, torture, persecution, rape and murder in a widespread and systematic manner…
-
Eritrea, Ethiopia Put Their War Masks On
[spider_facebook id=”4″]War logic has taken over Eritrean and Ethiopian leaders: the skirmish that ignited last weekend is careening towards a dangerous confrontation with war now all but inevitable–unless we all act. As we write this, Eritrea and Ethiopia are exchanging uninterrupted artillery fire across their border, each aiming to soften the positions of the other. Tension is…
-
Eritrea-Ethiopia: Wanted: Peace Lobby
[spider_facebook id=”4″]As we reported yesterday, there was a shoot-out between Eritrean and Ethiopian units on June 12 across their common boundary in the Tsorona area, roughly central point of their 912 km border. The spokesperson of the government of Eritrea gave a terse press release that Ethiopia had “unleashed an attack” on Eritrea, and that…
-
Eritrean Regime’s Strategy To Deal With Geneva
[spider_facebook id=”4″] While Eritrea has been under UN sanctions since 2009, it is the potential act of another UN agency, that of the Geneva-based Human Rights Council (HRC), that has been keeping the ruling clique in Eritrea worried. The UN’s HRC, which mandated the Commission of Inquiry on Eritrea (CoIE) to conduct an investigation on…
-
Government of Eritrea and the Commission of Inquiry
[spider_facebook id=”4″] The mouthpiece of the Government of Eritrea, shabait.com, has published a Ministry of Foreign Affairs press release to complain about the timing of the release of the report by the Commission of Inquiry on Eritrea (CoIE.) The statement goes on to describe such a release, whose timing it considers “credible information” as an…