London, UK: – Human Rights Concern – Eritrea (HRCE) strongly condemns the recent decision by the German authorities to label Brigade N’Hamedu, a movement of Eritrean refugees and activists, a terrorist organisation. This deeply unjust and dangerous classification misrepresents a grassroots civil resistance movement and risks empowering the very dictatorship from which these refugees fled.
Brigade N’Hamedu is not a terrorist group. It is a spontaneous and decentralised protest movement formed by Eritrean youth who have endured and escaped one of the world’s most repressive regimes. These individuals fled widespread human rights violations: indefinite military conscription, forced labour, mass surveillance, torture, and political imprisonment.
Their protests are a direct response to the ongoing transnational repression practiced by the Eritrean regime, which uses diaspora networks to monitor, intimidate, and control exiled communities. Central to this repression are state-organized “cultural festivals” held across Europe, including in Germany. These events are not innocent social gatherings. They are instruments of propaganda and fundraising operations designed to channel money directly to the Eritrean regime, strengthening its capacity to continue oppressing the people of Eritrea.
When young refugees protest these regime-linked festivals—often through acts of civil disobedience—they are expressing legitimate political dissent. Their actions are rooted in the pain of exile and the urgency of stopping the regime’s financial and ideological reach abroad. To criminalize these protests as “terrorism” is a grave miscarriage of justice and an affront to democratic values.
By adopting this designation, German authorities risk lending legitimacy to the Eritrean dictatorship’s false narrative and silencing victims of repression. It also sets a dangerous precedent: that survivors of tyranny can be criminalized for protesting the very forces that drove them into exile.
HRCE urgently calls on the German government to:
- Rescind the terrorist designation of Brigade N’Hamedu;
- Recognize the political nature of these protests and the broader context of transnational repression;
- Investigate the flow of funds from diaspora festivals to the Eritrean regime;
- Ensure the protection of refugees’ rights to protest, assemble, and speak freely in democratic societies.
Germany must stand with those who speak truth to power, not those who export repression across borders. Labelling protest as terrorism undermines the principles of justice, freedom, and international protection that refugees rely on.
Human Rights Concern – Eritrea (HRCE)
Defending the rights of Eritreans, everywhere.
Contact:
Human Rights Concern -Eritrea (HRCE)
Email: eritrea.facts@gmail.com
