The price of life

Updated with Video They emerge from a house in a remote desert village in the North Sinai, their long, thin legs barely able to carry them. That they can stand at all is a miracle. It is just a few days since the two young men escaped months of torture at the hands of human traffickers and their physical and emotional frailty is palpable. Twenty-two-year-old Tesfalem and 21-year-old Frezgi were held in two separate torture camps in the Sinai - Frezgi for 15 months and Tesfalem for seven months. To see their bodies is to witness the most gruesome abuse: Frezgi's back is covered with irregular, raised scars - wounds caused when melted plastic is dripped onto bare skin. Tesfalem's feet have been burned with cigarettes and anxiety now visibly vibrates through his painfully thin body. These are injuries I will see again and again as I meet more Eritreans who have survived the torture camps of the Sinai.

Egypt demands Ethiopia halt Nile dam, upping stakes

(Reuters) - Egypt will demand Ethiopia stop building a dam on one of the main tributaries of the Nile, a senior government aide said on Wednesday, ramping up a confrontation over the project that Egypt fears will affect its main source of water.

Ethiopia set off alarm bells in Cairo last week when it began diverting a stretch of the river to make way for the $4.7 billion hydroelectric plant.

Countries that share the river have argued over the use of its waters for decades - and analysts have repeatedly warned that the disputes could eventually boil over into war.

Egyptian politicians caught in on-air Ethiopia dam gaffe

Egyptian politicians are embarrassed after being caught suggesting hostile acts against Ethiopia to stop it from building a dam across the Blue Nile. ...

As the participants did not know that the meeting was being aired live by state TV, they spoke their minds unreservedly.

Their suggestions centred around military action as a decisive response to what one of them called a "declaration of war".

One of the politicians suggested sending special forces to destroy the dam; another thought of jet fighters to scare the Ethiopians; and a third called for Egypt to support rebel groups fighting the government in Addis Ababa.

Canada taking steps to expel Eritrean diplomat, Baird says

Canada is taking steps to expel Eritrea's consul general in Toronto, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird announced Wednesday.

"Canada has taken steps to expel (declare persona non grata) Mr. Semere Ghebremariam O. Micael, consul and head of the Eritrean Consulate General in Toronto, effective immediately," the Foreign Affiars department said in a short news release.

"Mr. O. Micael must leave Canada no later than noon Eastern time on June 5, 2013."

3rd state agrees to take Israel's Eritrean migrants

An undisclosed country has agreed to absorb the majority of Eritrean citizens who have illegally entered Israel, representatives of the state said Sunday.

The remarks came during a High Court discussion of a petition filed by human rights groups against Israel's infiltrator's law, which allows for the detention of illegal migrants without trial.

(Photo: Eritrean migrants protest Negeve detention facility)

Eritrean consul ordered to leave

Kicking the Eritrean consul out of Canada won't stop expats here from being shaken down for money by the long arm of the Eritrean government, say Winnipeg human rights activists.

"This is a half-hearted measure," said Ghirmay Yeibio.

The Eritrean consul was acting on instructions from a regime notorious for human rights violations and sanctioned by the UN for supporting a terrorist organization, said Yeibio. "He's just the messenger."

(Photo: Ghirmay Yebio)

Persecution Greater Than Ever and 'Getting Worse' in Eritrea

Religious persecution in Eritrea is at its “highest level ever and getting worse,” an Eritrean Christian leader, who cannot be named for security reasons, has told the Christian charity Open Doors International.

Thirty-seven Christian students from the College of Arts and Social Sciences in the town of Adi Kihe, and five men from the Church of the Living God in Asmara, were arrested last week, taking the total number of Christians known to have been arrested this year to 191.

(Photo: College of Arts, Adi-Keyih)

Expulsion of Eritrea’s Canadian consul a ‘first step’ to ending extortion: refugee

Ghezae Hagos is happy with the Canadian government’s actions. He called the move “a first step” but doesn’t think the move will change much.

He came to Canada from Eritrea as a political refugee in 1999. He now lives in Winnipeg and works with refugee claimants through the Manitoba Interfaith Immigration Council.

Hagos said the fees are charged when consular services – such as acquiring a new passport, visas, permits, and land purchase documents– are needed. But it’s not just the consulate that collects them, Hagos said in a phone interview.

“The consul has been expelled, but he has representatives in other cities,” he said. “As long as those people are allowed to do what they have been doing, they’ll find a way to do it.”

Canada expelling Eritrean diplomat for using consulate to shake down citizens for ‘national defence’

TORONTO — The Consulate General of Eritrea in Toronto, the African country’s only diplomatic outpost in Canada, has long been accused of running a collection racket set up to finance the regime and its armed forces.

As the National Post first reported in 2011, the consulate was acting as a fundraising front that solicited a 2% income tax and a $300 to $500 “national defence” fee from Eritrean expatriates in Canada.

On Wednesday, Ottawa moved to shut the scheme down, ordering the expulsion of consul Semere Ghebremariam O. Micael over his persistent efforts to use the consulate to violate a United Nations military embargo.

The expulsion order followed a government investigation that found that, months after Canada had ordered him to stop, the Eritrean consul was continuing to solicit money, some of it explicitly for military purposes.

Swedish Men Charged with Extortion Racket Linked to Eritrea Kidnappings

A Stockholm court has charged two young Swedish nationals of Middle Eastern origin with extortion in connection with the kidnappings of Eritrean asylum seekers.

The two, aged 21 and 18, allegedly demanded money from families living in Sweden for the safe return of loved ones. The suspects, who were arrested in February, have been accused of trying to extort $33,000 (£22,000) in ransom demands.