On International Human Rights Day, the world needs to take note of human rights abuses in Eritrea.
Although the Federal Government of Ethiopia and the Tigray authorities signed a peace agreement on 2 November 2022, and agreed to cease hostilities, Eritrean forces are still stationed in Tigray and other parts of Ethiopia. The major question which remains unanswered is what possible justification can there now be for the continued presence of the Eritrean military forces in Tigray and other parts of Ethiopia.
For the last two years the Eritrean authorities have been rounding up thousands of Eritreans, young and old, and most of them have been sent to participate in the war in Tigray. These round ups, known as Giffas, are continuing. The Eritrean government recently intensified round ups in all regions, including the capital city, Asmara, of the underage, those of conscription age, married women with no children, the elderly (over 70), and even those disabled in previous wars. Security forces are implementing the Giffas using names from food rationing lists. The round-ups are on a massive scale: On 19 September, over 200 civilians were rounded up from a few villages in Tselema, Seraye, in the Southern region of the country, and loaded into an army truck which later crashed, killing five and seriously injuring most onboard.
Giffas/Roundups of potential conscripts are occurring everywhere. Where conscription-age persons are missing (men and women aged 18 to 60), collective punishment is meted out to family members, including the elderly and breast-feeding mothers, regardless of their health or age. All such family members are thrown out of their homes or arrested unless they hand over missing relatives to the military. When the security forces do not find the sons, daughters, or husbands, they detain parents, wives and any other relatives, locking up their houses so that they cannot re-enter, and intentionally making them homeless. Most evicted families are left in the open, exposed to the elements, with no blankets and barely any food. If neighbours or other relatives shelter the evicted families, they too have their homes locked up and become homeless.
Farmers whose children have avoided conscription are prevented from ploughing their land; their livestock is also “detained”. Some livestock have died because they were not fed or watered during their detention. Shopkeepers whose children are in hiding avoiding forced transfer to the war zone have their shops shut. Shops and hotels are closing because staff are in hiding. These privations are additional to ongoing harsh restrictions on the civilian population, including the curfew (which has now lasted 3 years), power cuts, water shortages, and massive shortages of medicine and other supplies.
These continued privations, on top of the fear induced by frequent round-ups and evictions, have seriously affected the mental health of the already traumatised Eritrean population. The entire process has imposed a deadly fear on the population. Some interesting reactions by civilians are also taking place. People have broken back into their own homes, and, having armed themselves, are daring the security forces to come to arrest them.
Why does Eritrea continue to round up young people, minors, elderly, disabled and married women without children, when the war in Tigray is meant to have ended?
Human Rights Concern Eritrea (HRCE) feels duty bound to highlight the appalling human rights abuses committed against the civilian population of Eritrea and to ask the world to take urgent note of the continued aggressive and totally unjustified presence of Eritrean troops in Tigray.
HRCE wishes to remind members of the UN and the African Union of: –
- The continued illegal presence of Eritrean military forces in Tigray and their ongoing violations against civilians;
- The danger to the ceasefire posed by this Eritrean military presence;
- The appalling and brutal treatment of Eritrean civilians of all ages by security forces imposing conscription without regard to legal definitions;
- The huge forced exit of Eritreans from their country, which will inevitably seriously increase the number of refugees in this region of Africa, and ultimately the numbers attempting to cross the Mediterranean to safety in Europe.
HRCE appeals to the United Nations and African Union to take urgent action:-
- To bring motions of censure to the UN Human Rights Council and UN General Assembly requiring the Eritrean authorities to withdraw all their troops from Tigray and to cease all human rights abuses against the civilian population in Eritrea, including in the process of forced conscription.
Human Rights Concern – Eritrea (HRCE)
