Author: site manager

Eritrea Won’t Shorten National Service Despite Migration Fears

(reuters.com, Edmund Blair, Feb 25, 2016) Eritrea is not prepared to stop forcing its youth into lengthy stretches of work as soldiers and civil servants, a conscription policy that is driving waves of refugees to make the perilous trip across the Sahara desert and Mediterranean Sea…

Nevsun in Eritrea: Dealing With a Dictator

(thefifthestate.com, Mark Kelley, Feb 12, 2016) When a small Vancouver mining company struck gold in a remote corner of Africa, it started with so much promise. In remote Eritrea, Nevsun built a mine that was generating $700 million in profits in its first four years of…

The Roots and Evo­lu­tions of YPFDJ, in search for 2nd gen­er­a­tion cadres

(fithinews.com, Biniam Yohannes, Feb 10, 2016) A decade after inde­pen­dence, the Eritrean People’s Lib­er­a­tion Front (EPLF), which won the war of inde­pen­dence from Ethiopian coloni­sa­tion in 1991, had started becom­ing the very enemy it drove out dur­ing its 30-​year pop­u­lar strug­gle. In 1994, a year after…

Eritrea: Freedom House Rating (2014)

OVERVIEW: President Isaias Afwerki’s personal authority was publically challenged in 2013 for the first time in more than a decade when, on January 21, more than 100 soldiers occupied the Ministry of Information, took over the state-run television channel, Eri-TV, and demanded democratic reforms, including the…

Court Rules in Favour of Mirjam van Reisen

(bellaafrica.com, Reinhardt Jacobsen, Feb 10, 2016) A Court in Amsterdam struck down Meseret Bahlbi lawsuit against Mirjam van Reisen, Dutch professor and human rights advocate. The judge found that she was not guilty of libel and slander and that the youth party of the Eritrean government…

Awate: “Mistir Leyti”: Secret of The Night

(Awate.com, Tzigereda Haile, Feb 10, 2016)  During the struggle (Ghedli), the Tigrinya phrase for “password” was “misTir Leyti”: secret of the night. Usually, it was the name of a martyr, shared and circulated per whisper up to the tegadalay (combatant) serving in the frontline. Practiced throughout the whole…

Eritrea: Economic Studies

MAJOR MACRO ECONOMIC INDICATORS 2013  2014 2015 (f) 2016 (f) GDP growth (%) 1.3  1.7 1.3 2.4 Inflation (yearly average) (%) 13.0  12.2 10.1 13.4 Budget balance (% GDP)  -11.7  -12.7 -13.5 -11.1 Current account balance (% GDP)  -5.6  -7.7 -6.5 -7.5 Public debt (% GDP) 130.4…