This is part one of the fascinating article that was published on BBC – Tigrinya Service on 30 Sep 2024.
“ … the last meeting was unusually tense because President Isaias’ son, Abraham, had come to attend the cabinet meeting “to gain experience”. Abdella Adem
It has been six years since the last meeting of the Eritrean Cabinet of Ministers. Many Eritreans have been raising questions regarding its disappearance. ‘What happened to it’? Why is it ‘suspended’? ‘What happened to the ministers themselves and the ministries they used to head’?
The age of most of the incumbent ministers has also been among the main concerns of Eritreans. BTW, the average age of its members is close to 80, with no replacements in sight.
On September 21, 2024, at 4:00 p.m., a march for the human rights of the Eritrean people will be held in Bologna, an awareness-raising event that aims to bring serious human rights violations in Eritrea to international attention. The march will start from the historic Church of San Luca and will pass through the city’s porticoes to end in Piazza Nettuno at 6:30 p.m.
What is the relationship between the national unity and the liberation of Eritrea? How was the national unity during the process of nationalism and nationhood in Eritrea from the pre-colonial period and later under colonial period and after colonial period during the British administration and the Ethiopian occupation and during the political and armed struggle period? How can national unity of a multi-ethnic and multi religious Eritrea achieved? What forms of unity, consociational or federal?
Based on the Eritrean historical findings, Eritrea’s national process was full of conflicts, conspiracies, sabotages and internecine wars. The outcome of the Eritrean political parties after the British administration could not achieve national unity and the Eritrean case was taken by external forces in collaboration of Eritrean nationals under the leadership of the Unionist party of that time and the result was reunion of Eritrea with Ethiopia.
How much are the “Brigade Nhamedu” aware about the Eritrean diversity and its future plan in post -dictatorship Eritrea?
How can the oppression of ethnic minorities in post-dictatorship transitions be best addressed through constitution building and state structure? Where constitution building takes place in the aftermath of conflict or after the fall of dictatorship the relationship between different ethnic minorities and dominant ethnic groups within the state are often difficult and headache for the dominant ethnic like that of our tiny Eritrea.
NGOs, military and intelligence officers, gov’t officials involved in cross-border smuggling
A human trafficking network stretching from
Asmara to Addis Ababa via Tigray and involving government officials, NGOs, and intelligence and military officers has escalated to new heights as tens of thousands of youth desperately grasp at the prospect of a better life abroad in the wake of war and economic stagnation.
Dozens of interviews conducted by The Reporter reveal that a large number of youth crossing the Eritrean border into Tigray, as well as those fleeing the war-torn region, have created fertile ground for an opportunistic and widespread human trafficking trade.
“From Atsbi Woreda alone, 1,200 youth left in a single month. This is not the largest figure. There are other woredas with higher numbers. There are a dozen or more youth who have lost their lives on trafficking routes from every town and village across Tigray,” the Director of a civil society organization (CSO) anonymously told The Reporter.