Eritrea's 20th Anniversary - Haunted By Perceptions or Reality?

Eritrea celebrates its 20th anniversary of independence on Friday with state-run media describing festivities across the country. But Amnesty International has decried the alleged human rights abuses committed by the one-party government run by President Isaias Afewerki, asserting that some 10,000 people are being held in jails.

Eritreans in Canada say consul still demands cash from them

There are calls to expel Eritrea's top diplomat in Canada because he presides over a system that's milking money from the Eritrean community in this country.

Evidence obtained by CBC News suggests Consul Semere Ghebremariam O. Micael is again soliciting taxes despite a threat by Canada eight months ago not to renew his credentials if he kept at it.

But one Eritrean in Toronto, who has asked not to be identified, tells the CBC it was business as usual just a few weeks later when he had to pay.

Documents show Eritrea defying Canadian government by using Toronto consulate to raise money for regime

But nine months later, evidence gathered by an Eritrean-Canadian human rights group shows the practice has continued: As recently as January the consulate issued forms demanding payment for Eritrea’s “national defence against Ethiopian invasion.”

The documents also show the consulate is still imposing a 2% income tax on Eritrean-Canadians — a practice Ottawa had also insisted had to end after the RCMP and UN reported that those who refused to pay were subjected to threats, intimidation and coercion.

“We take these allegations very seriously, and are currently working to determine if the Eritrean consulate is continuing to disregard Canadian law,” Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird’s press secretary, Rick Roth, said Tuesday.

“We have clearly communicated to the Eritrean government our concerns both in Ottawa, and Eritrea. We expect the Eritrean government not to test our resolve. These actions, if true, will have repercussions.”

The Disappearance of Sudan

In this context, the renewal of Sudanese citizenship is vital if further rupture between the Sudanese peoples and, ultimately, the further physical disintegration of the state, are to be avoided.

However, and as the report contends, this renewal can only be achieved by ending the violence that is currently targeted overwhelmingly at marginalised communities; transforming practice, policy and law around the construction of a genuinely non-discriminatory and fully participatory Sudanese citizenship; and committing to the creation of an all-Sudan political and constitutional process that allows grievances and programmes for change from the margins to be heard and heeded.

Escape From An Eritrean Prison

Eritrea's human rights record has long faced international criticism. Located in the Horn of Africa, the country is home to five million people, but so closed to the outside world that individual stories tend to come almost exclusively from those who have fled.

Kidane Isaac was just 18 when he says Eritrean authorities arrested him for an unspecified crime. It's possible he was suspected of planning to desert military service. Thousands of Eritreans flee the country every month, many of them teenagers, to escape the

Independent UN expert stresses need to improve human rights situation in Eritrea

“I am particularly concerned about the increasing number of unaccompanied children crossing the border without the knowledge of their families,” Ms. Keetharuth said. “Children regularly mentioned dysfunctional family circumstances due to the long absence of the father, most of the time because of conscription, lack of educational opportunities and the fear of forced conscription into indefinite national service as major reasons for their decisions to flee.”

The Special Rapporteur voiced particular concern about the indefinite national service, the ongoing practice of arbitrary arrest and incommunicado detention in inhumane conditions and widespread torture, both physical and psychological, during interrogation by the police, military and security forces. Mere suspicion appears to be enough for somebody to be subjected to interrogation and detention without charge or without being brought before a court of law.

Anger in Ethiopia after Eritrea supports Egypt’s “right” to Nile water

ADDIS ABABA: Anger is fomenting in Ethiopia following last month’s statements from the Eritrean government over who has a right to Nile River water, which has become a contentious issue in recent years between Ethiopia and Egypt, who claims the lion’s share of water from the world’s largest waterway.

The Eritrean government said in April that it supported Egypt’s position over a controversial colonial-era treaty that grants Egypt a right a majority of the Nile’s water resources. ...

The Egyptian president, Mohamed Morsi, has highly welcomed Eritrea’s position towards Egypt’s “historic rights” over the sharing of the water of the Nile River.

With Robocalls, Eritrean Exiles Organize Passive Resistance

From his perch in California, Sium tries to stay politically connected to his country. He marches when there's a local demonstration, contributes to refugee causes and posts on Facebook.

But there's always one thing missing. The people inside Eritrea don't dare to "like" his Facebook posts. And they never march in the streets themselves. For Eritrean activists living abroad, this silence can be frustrating.

So Sium had an idea: If we can't ask them to come out, what if we ask them to stay home?

Eritrean women face threat of abuse even after they leave: report

April 28, 2013 (KHARTOUM) - Eritrean women fleeing their country’s oppressive regime are increasingly finding themselves the repeat victim of abuse, exploitation and violence once outside their homeland, a new report by a women’s rights group has found.

The deeply personal stories highlight the often traumatic circumstances surrounding women’s departure from their homeland, which is further compounded by economic hardship and ongoing rights abuses suffered in their host countries.

“Kedusan” told SIHA researchers that she fled to Sudan after her husband crossed to Ethiopia to avoid military conscription and she herself was imprisoned as punishment. After reaching the border she was handed over to a group of smugglers, one of whom raped her in front of her two-year-old daughter after they were left alone together.

She later fell pregnant as a result and although she says she reported the rape to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), she says she was offered little assistance.

She later managed to make her way to Khartoum where she found work, but when her husband came to find her he abandoned her after learning about the rape and pregnancy.

(Photo: Refugees in Shagarab refugee camps)

African Heads of States Challenged About Human Trafficking in the Sinai

Sharing her experience and expertise in the struggle against human trafficking in the region was Ms Meron Estifanos, Eritrean human rights activist and journalist with the diaspora based Radio Erena. In a moving presentation focusing on the narrative of a young victim of trafficking who died leaving her toddler son, in the hands of her abductors; Meron challenged every head of state present to respond to the plight of countless victims and address this shameful issue taking place in the region.

In his own presentation President Omer Hassan al-Bashir admitted that the concern is indeed a grave one that requires urgent attention. For his part president Paul Kagame also made a personal commitment to highlighting this concern at the UN Security Council, over the coming few months.