ELLIS HEASLEY, of UK-based religious freedom advocacy CSW, looks at why Eritrea – and in particular its military forces – remains a cause for advocacy and prayer in 2023…
London, UK
On 3rd January, Eritrean troops killed two young men in the city of Axum, Tigray. Two days earlier, on New Year’s Day, video footage showed other troops looting properties in the town of Shire to the west. At present, it seems the violence and violations which have been widely documented in Tigray over the past two years are continuing unabated into 2023.
Some may have hoped that the peace agreement, signed between the Ethiopian Government and Tigray regional forces in November, 2022, would have brought an end to the horror; others may have welcomed reports of Eritrean troops’ withdrawal from parts of the region which emerged in late December. However, as these recent developments indicate once again, Eritrea cannot be trusted, and its troops remain a clear threat both to the peace process and to the lives of Tigrayan civilians.
A camp for internally displaced people in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. PICTURE: CSW/Josh Brown.
“Over the past two years, Eritrean troops have been implicated in the gravest of international crimes, including the use of rape as a weapon of war, ethnicity-based massacres of men and boys, and the targeting of churches, mosques, IDP and refugee camps, a market, and other civilian structures.”
Eritrea is not party to the November peace agreement, and, for its leader Isais Afewerki, the war on Tigray is the fulfilment of a long-held vendetta against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front which dates back to their differences during their joint liberation struggle which culminated in costly border war in 1998 and a lengthy Ethiopian occupation of part of Eritrean territory. It is unlikely that he will rest until the senior TPLF leaders who remain free are captured and either humiliated, or eliminated.
Over the past two years, Eritrean troops have been implicated in the gravest of international crimes, including the use of rape as a weapon of war, ethnicity-based massacres of men and boys, and the targeting of churches, mosques, IDP and refugee camps, a market, and other civilian structures. According to a Tigray Emergency Coordinate Operational Update, Eritrean troops and Amhara militias reportedly killed 3,708 people and abducted 645 between the peace pact of 2nd November and 30th December, 2022.
Within its own borders, reports continue to emerge of door-to-door roundups and forcible conscription of Eritrean citizens of all ages, ostensibly to strengthen the war effort. It is worth remembering that these actions have not come out of nowhere. In June, 2016, a United Nations Commission of Inquiry on the country ‘found reasonable grounds to believe’ that the Eritrean government has been responsible for ‘widespread and systematic’ crimes against humanity since 1991.
In May, 2002, the regime effectively outlawed religious practices not affiliated with the Catholic, Evangelical Lutheran or Orthodox Christian denominations, or Sunni Islam. Thousands of adherents of non-recognised religious communities have been detained without charge or trial since then. Most are held in inhumane and life-threatening conditions – such as shipping containers , underground cells, or in the open air in the middle of the desert – and many face torture, extrajudicial execution, or even die due to privations.
Even members of the recognised religious groups face intense repression. On 28th December, 2022, for example, the Bishop of the Catholic Eparchy of Segheneity and a parish priest were released from an unknown location after spending more than two months in detention following their arrests in October. A third Catholic clergyman who was also arrested in October, was released from Adi Abeito prison a month earlier on 23rd November.
Of course, their releases are welcome; however, they never should have been imprisoned in the first place. Worse still, many others, including from other recognised religious communities such as the Orthodox Church and Sunni Islam, have spent years and even decades in detention.
For example, next month marks the first anniversary of the death in detention of the legitimate Patriarch of the Eritrean Orthodox Church, Abune Antonios, who spent 15 years under house arrest after he was removed from office in violation of canon law in 2006. The Patriarch had repeatedly objected to government interference in church affairs, and he continued to vocally criticise the regime through letters and videos smuggled out of the country during his detention.
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The Eritrean Government has never accepted criticism or questioning of its supreme authority, so there is little reason to believe that it will end its violations both within its own borders and in neighbouring Tigray in response to words alone. Concrete action is needed, particularly from the African Union and the United Nations, and it must include co-ordinated and targeted sanctions on members of the Eritrean regime, and a comprehensive global arms embargo.
As ever, we can also play a part by keeping the situations in Eritrea and Tigray are on our parliamentarians’ radars, whether that is through writing to them directly, raising awareness on social media, or participating in wider collective calls for action such as protests.
CSW believes that every voice holds unimaginable power, and as we look to the year ahead our hope and prayer is that many others will raise theirs so that 2023 finally brings an end to the suffering of the people of Eritrea and Tigray.
Ellis Heasley is public affairs officer at UK-based religious freedom advocacy CSW.
