Source: Zeit

Updated September 23, 2023, 6:05 p.m 139 comments

Eritrean soldiers march during Independence Day celebrations in the capital Asmara in May. © J. Countess/​Getty Images

No violence! He repeatedly impressed upon his group this, says Amanuel Zeru. When the situation escalated, he fell to his knees, his arms spread out like a cross, and some of his fellow soldiers did the same. They wanted to demonstrate peacefully against the regime that forced them to flee their homeland of Eritrea . And against those compatriots who continue to remain loyal to the dictatorship from Germany.

On July 8, thousands of supporters of the dictator Isayas Afewerki traveled to Giessen for the “Eritrea Festival,” an annual event that pays homage to the regime of the small East African country and raises money. Zeru and other opposition members wanted to prevent the event - not all of them only by peaceful means. Zeru later told ZEIT that no one in his group was armed . But others had stones and bottles in their hands.

At the end of that day, the police in Giessen recorded several clashes in the city, over 100 arrests and 26 injured police officers. Amanuel Zeru also ended up in police custody.

In August there was violence at Eritrea festivals in Stockholm and Toronto, at the beginning of September in Tel Aviv, and a few days ago, on September 16th, there were again riots in Stuttgart on the occasion of an event close to the regime. Amanuel Zeru was not there. But again, numerous police officers were injured. “Foreign conflicts must not be fought in our country,” said Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD). The violent perpetrators must “feel the full severity of criminal law and immigration law,” said Baden-Württemberg’s Interior Minister Thomas Strobl (CDU). Statements that are intended to calm a rightly outraged public. The only question is: who brought this conflict to European and German soil?Newsletter

Eritrea is a small country in the Horn of Africa, its area is approximately the same as that of East Germany. In 1993, Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia after decades of war. The leader was Isayas Afewerki. The freedom hero soon turned out to be a despot. Afewerki, now 77 years old, has been president for 30 years without ever giving his people the opportunity to vote again. He turned Eritrea into a police state and introduced a "national service". It lasts six years or half a lifetime; Men and women can be drafted again at any time to perform forced labor or go to war. The fear of being attacked by larger countries has long since turned into a policy of permanent aggression.This article comes from ZEIT No. 40/2023. You can read the entire issue here.

Around a million Eritreans now live outside their home country. That's almost one in five. In Germany there are around 80,000. And almost everywhere in the diaspora there are two groups: on the one hand, those who left the country before it became independent. For them, Afewerki remains the hero of the freedom struggle; they celebrate their homeland in clubs, for example organizing themselves in the "Central Council of Eritreans in Germany", which organizes the Eritrea Festival in Giessen and is also connected to the event in Stuttgart. Similar events take place all over the world.

On the other hand, there is the growing number of young exiles like Amanuel Zeru, who now make up the majority in the Eritrean foreign community. For them, Afewerki is the dictator who forced them out of the country along the long sub-Saharan route, first to Sudan, then to Libya, then across the Mediterranean to Europe. To avoid national service, Amanuel Zeru came to Germany via this route at the age of 14. Many die while fleeing or are kidnapped and mistreated by smugglers in order to extort more money. In Germany, most Eritreans receive subsidiary protection; the recognition rate was recently 84 percent.

The conflict between the two camps has been escalating for years. Not only, but especially around the Eritrea Festival in Giessen. The event has been taking place in the Hessenhallen since 2011, accompanied by peaceful protests from the opposing side - until these escalated for the first time in 2022. Around 100 people broke away from the counter-demonstration and attacked helpers and festival guests as well as police officers with iron bars, knives and stones. 33 people were injured, the police spoke of an "excess of violence" and the festival did not take place.

Stuttgart: Police officers surround a group of participants during riots at an Eritrea event on September 16th. © Jason Chepljakov/​pa/​dpa

In mid-May, two months before this year's riots, Amanuel Zeru sits in the train station café in a medium-sized city and tells how his cell phone rang one night at the end of April. Amanuel Zeru bounces his legs, constantly plays with his car keys, and looks at passers-by. A few weeks earlier, he had tried to prevent the concert of an Eritrean pop star who is said to be close to the regime. He wanted to persuade the operator of the concert hall to cancel. Amanuel Zeru believes that word has got around in circles loyal to the regime. Hence the late night call. On the other end: the man known in the exile community as "Bob."

Zeru documented the call, so the conversation went like this:

Bob: "Look, I know where you live. You have two kids, think about them."

Amanuel Zeru: "Don't talk about my children!"

Bob: "One bullet from an Albanian is enough. I'll make sure you end up in a wheelchair."

Since then, says Amanuel Zeru, he has avoided leaving the house in the evenings.

If you talk to opposition Eritreans in Germany, the name "Bob" is always mentioned when they report threats and gangs of thugs. Also in ZEIT 's conversation with an opposition Eritrean in exile in Kassel, who stated that men asked him on the street a few days after the 2022 Eritrea Festival whether he had been involved in the protest against the festival. They then tried to pull him into a minibus. The man filed a complaint, as did another exile who was apparently threatened by the same group shortly afterwards. He also stated that he had previously received a threatening call from “Bob”. After two months, the Kassel public prosecutor's office stopped the investigation: "A perpetrator could not be identified," she wrote.

The name "Bob" is also mentioned when exiles talk about a group that allegedly acts in the service of the regime abroad: Eri-Blood.

The organization is not registered in any association register, there is no clubhouse, no board of directors. But there are many alleged attacks on dissidents. A 2017 study, commissioned by the Dutch Foreign Ministry, mentions arson in Sweden and spying attempts in the Netherlands. Suspected Eri Blood members also drove cars into groups of people in Norway and Italy. The study describes Eri-Blood as the "militant wing" of the only authorized party in Eritrea, Afewerki's "Popular Front for Democracy and Justice."

Members of the Central Council of Eritreans in Germany, a kind of umbrella organization for pro-regime associations, referred to Eri-Blood as "our security guards" at an internal event last year, a recording of which is available to ZEIT. The association's board did not want to comment on this to ZEIT.

During the Eritrea Festival in Giessen in July 2023, the Hessian YouTuber Joachim Schaefer approached men at the gate to the exhibition center who acted like security forces but were clearly not part of the official security company. In the video, Schaefer asks the men if they belonged to Eri-Blood. On their black T-shirts there is a red "52", which could stand for the fifth and second letters in the Latin alphabet, for "E" and "B", possibly a code for Eri-Blood. The men avoided Schaefer's questions.

A man in his 50s also appears in his video, with a silvery beard, a stern look, a bright voice, and he is missing one front tooth. He appears dominant; you get the impression that the men in the black T-shirts are listening to him. “What’s the problem with celebrating a dictator?” he asks in the video. When Schaefer released his film two days later, he received a call from the man complaining. The number is the same as the threatening call to Amanuel Zeru. The man in the video is apparently "Bob". By the time of going to press, ZEIT had attempted to contact “Bob” several times at this cell phone number. Without success.

“Bob's” real name is known in the diaspora: Neamin Bereket M. ZEIT asked various Hessian security authorities about possible investigations and their level of knowledge about Eri-Blood and “Bob's” role. The tenor of the answers: Nobody knows anything about the structures of the regime in Germany. So far, there are no “specific facts known in which there were threats or physical attacks by supporters of the Eritrean regime against opposition members,” says the Hesse State Criminal Police Office.

Why does a poor country in the Horn of Africa need a thugs in Europe? Why is it so intent on controlling its diaspora? Because it's worth it. The CIA estimates that almost a third of Eritrean gross domestic product comes from diaspora remittances.

Israel: Girls play in an Eritrean community center in Eilat. Thousands of Eritreans live in Israel. There were riots in Tel Aviv in September. © Laetitia Vancon/​NYT/​Redux/​laif

The central flow of this foreign currency, which is valuable for the dictatorship, is the “diaspora tax”: two percent of the annual net income of Eritreans abroad – for life. Those loyal to the regime pay them voluntarily, while opponents of the regime have to pay them if they want to use embassy or consulate services. The diaspora tax has been officially banned in Germany since 2011.

Amanuel Zeru refuses to help finance the regime he fled. That's why he applied for German citizenship after 16 years in Germany. Because the immigration authorities required proof of Eritrean identity, he would have had to go to the consulate general or the embassy. Zeru refused, and the authority requested a written statement. He presented it in 2019. Nothing has happened since then, he says.

“Eritrea is doing a lot to control its diaspora,” says Marcel Kasprzyk. "And German authorities are doing little to counter this." The Frankfurt lawyer with a focus on migration law represents numerous refugees from Eritrea. As a rule, according to Kasprzyk, refugees arrive in Germany without papers. Some never had them, others had them taken from them while they were fleeing, others lost them or destroyed them to avoid being sent back to Eritrea. By requiring official Eritrean identity proof for naturalization, permanent residence permits, family reunification or marriage, the German authorities are forcing refugees back into the arms of the regime. And that, says Kasprzyk, requires not only money, but also penance.

"Taesa" is the name of the declaration of repentance that opposition Eritreans have to sign at the embassy or consulate general. ZEIT has the original and an English translation of the document. In it, the refugees have to reveal private data and explain in detail how they escaped. And they must sign that they regret violating their “national duties” and will accept “appropriate measures.” They will only find out what happens to them if they return to Eritrea at some point. "The Taesa hangs over them like the sword of Damocles," says Marcel Kasprzyk, the lawyer.

In October 2022, the Federal Administrative Court ruled that it was unreasonable to put those seeking protection in such a situation. An important judgment, says Kasprzyk. But the responsible authorities are slow to change their practices.

Other countries are taking more decisive action. For example, in 2018, the Netherlands expelled a high-ranking Eritrean diplomat because refugees continued to be forced to pay the diaspora tax.

Amanuel Zeru is now waiting for further news from the police. A week before the festival in Gießen, he received a “threat speech” because he was already there in 2022 when the protests against the festival escalated for the first time. The official note said he should stay away from the demonstration this time: “Avoid any further potentially criminal behavior!”

After his arrest in July 2023, he sat in a cell for 24 hours. He cried, he says, because the regime was drinking and dancing outside - and because he feared for his residence permit. He has not yet heard anything from the Giessen police, who are now investigating 125 cases on suspicion of bodily harm and breach of the peace.

In response to a request from ZEIT, the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Hesse said it was currently examining in detail "the extent to which anti-constitutional efforts are emanating from individual people and/or groups of people with a connection to Eritrea." It remains unclear whether this refers to the opposition members who network across Europe or groups close to the regime such as Eri-Blood.

Two weeks after the Eritrea Festival in Giessen, Amanuel Zeru took part in a meeting of hundreds of opponents of the Eritrean dictatorship in Hanau, some of whom came from the USA and Australia. For Zeru it was an important event; he hopes that the younger generation, the dictator's opponents, will soon set the tone in the diaspora. On the eve of the meeting in Hanau, around 20 men attacked a meeting point of the Eritrean opposition in Frankfurt. They broke windows and car windows. The police are investigating.

Source: Swedish Radio

The government wants to stop Eritrea's "diaspora tax"

Published Saturday 9 September at 16:37

·        The Eritrean dictatorship tries to control exiled Eritreans in Sweden, among other things by forcing them to pay a so-called "diaspora tax", approximately two percent of one's annual income.

·        Now both the government and the Social Democrats want to see an end to this, Foreign Minister Tobias Billström and the Social Democrats' Morgan Johansson inform Ekot.

·        The tax, which Eritrea claims is "voluntary", has been criticized by several Eritreans in exile and is believed to be part of the explanation for violent riots that broke out in early August in connection with an Eritrean cultural festival in Stockholm.

Erik Norman
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Martin Plaut posted: " Abraham Teklu Lemma, 50, of Silver Spring, Md., was charged with three counts of conspiracy, gathering or delivering national defense information to aid a foreign government Source: Washington Post A Maryland man of Ethiopian descent, Abraham Tek" Martin Plaut

Abraham Teklu Lemma, 50, of Silver Spring, Md., was charged with three counts of conspiracy, gathering or delivering national defense information to aid a foreign government

Source: Washington Post

A Maryland man of Ethiopian descent, Abraham Teklu Lemma, is accused of passing on classified national defense information about a region where soldiers battled rebels

By Spencer S. Hsu

September 21, 2023 at 4:23 p.m. EDT

A contract employee for the State and Justice departments has been charged with espionage, U.S. prosecutors announced Thursday, accused of passing on classified information since August 2022 to an official associated with Ethiopia’s intelligence service.

Abraham Teklu Lemma, 50, of Silver Spring, Md., was charged in an Aug. 23 complaint unsealed Thursday on three counts of conspiracy, gathering or delivering national defense information to aid a foreign government, and unauthorized possession and willful retention of national defense information, Justice Department and FBI officials said. The first two counts are punishable by up to life in prison and the last count by up to 10 years.

An attorney for Lemma could not immediately be identified.

In a statement announcing the charges, the U.S. attorney’s office and FBI field office in Washington said Lemma is a naturalized U.S. citizen from Ethiopia who had Top Secret/SCI clearance and access to classified systems as an IT administrator for the Department of State and as a management analyst for the Justice Department. He was arrested Aug. 24, but a scheduled bond hearing Thursday before a federal judge in Washington was not held, and no information was immediately available on the court’s public docket system.

A charging affidavit released by the Justice Department alleges that since February 2022, Lemma copied classified secret and top secret information from more than 100 intelligence reports and removed information from secure facilities without authorization. In August and September that year, Lemma allegedly transmitted classified national defense information to the official associated with Ethiopia’s intelligence service, including satellite imagery and information related to Eritrean activities in Ethiopia’s Tigray region.

Charging papers did not name Ethiopia, but accused Lemma of spying for a country where he was previously a citizen, had family ties and recently visited. An FBI affidavit also described military activities consistent with those of armed rebels battling allied Ethiopian and Eritrean government soldiers at the time.

According to the FBI, Lemma communicated with the foreign official by encrypted chat, where they discussed rebel military activity and Lemma sent photos of a “military compound.” The official advised Lemma, in those chats, “[i]t is great to identify the forward deployed command centers and logistic centers.”

In another communication, the foreign official stated, “[i]t’s time to continue ur support,” and Lemma responded, “Roger that!” according to the compliant. The foreign official allegedly praised Lemma’s efforts, stating “[a]lways this beautiful country have [sic] some special people who scarify [sic] their life to protect our proud history. You always remembered. It doesn’t matter the results.”

Share this articleShare

The FBI said an authorized search of Lemma’s electronic accounts on non-secure networks confirmed that he possessed classified national defense information including digital photographic copies, notes and maps that he sent to the foreign official.

On four days in August, Lemma was observed at work reviewing classified intelligence reports outside of his authorized access using the State Department’s classified computer system and accessing non-department classified portals, either writing information on sheets of paper he folded and carried out of the department in his pockets or copying and pasting information into documents he burned into a CD/DVD disc and was observed taking home with him, according to the FBI.

Most recently, on Aug. 18, State Department records indicate Lemma completed approximately 10 downloads, most of which were classified at the “TOP SECRET” or “SECRET” level.

The FBI said Lemma was also seen angrily discouraging a Maryland bank branch employee from filing a currency transaction report when he attempted to deposit more than $11,700 on July 15, shortly after he had copied without authorization at least 16 intelligence reports. The transaction was part of more than $55,000 in deposits dating to the beginning of 2022 that a case agent deemed suspicious.

Lemma previously worked for another government agency identified in court papersonly as “U.S. Agency 1” from November 2020 to December 2021, in addition to working during evening hours as a State Department bureau of intelligence and research help desk technician and IT administrator, and as a daytime contract management analyst since May 2022 for the Justice Department.

Source: SWR September 20 , 2023 , 10:10 p.m

·         

The Eritrea event next Saturday in Stuttgart will not take place. The city of Stuttgart announced this on Wednesday evening. The state capital and the Association of Eritrean Clubs have mutually agreed to cancel the rental agreement for a municipal gym and meeting hall in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen. This means the event is off the table.

City: “Decision in the interest of public safety”

The decision was made in the interest of public safety and order, the city of Stuttgart said in a written statement. There were intensive discussions between the clubs and the mayor of Stuttgart, Clemens Maier (Free Voters).Start audio

After riots at Eritrea eventSecurity measures: SPD interior expert directs questions to the city of Stuttgart

A ban on the Eritrea event next Saturday had been discussed for days. Politicians in Baden-Württemberg debated ways to ban the event.

Association of Eritrean clubs was cooperative

“We only did this to take greater account of the concerns of citizens and the public,” said Johannes Russom from the umbrella organization of Eritrean associations in Stuttgart to the German Press Agency. The association also wants to show its willingness to cooperate.

But this is not a capitulation to violence; the cancellation should not send the wrong signal. Events will continue to be held in Stuttgart and they want to rent rooms from the city again in the future. Saturday's meeting has only been postponed - "indefinitely," said Russom. They want to help de-escalate the situation.

Stuttgart's mayor Frank Nopper (CDU) welcomed the fact that the rental agreement for the event next Saturday had been terminated. On Wednesday evening he reiterated his demand that last weekend's violent perpetrators be punished harshly and quickly.

Police warn violent criminals not to travel to Stuttgart

Stuttgart Police Vice President Carsten Höfler was relieved by the decision to cancel the rental agreement. “This is a strong signal towards a future non-violent political conflict between the two conflict parties of Eritrean origin,” said Höfler on Wednesday evening.

We can only hope that the repeal has an impact and reaches everyone who had planned to travel to Stuttgart again at the weekend.

Police Vice President of Stuttgart, Carsten Höfler

Höfler announced that the police would still be very attentive next weekend. "We will have emergency services both on duty and on standby in order to be able to react consistently and in a low-threshold manner when possible troublemakers arrive. "I stand by this: Scenes like last Saturday must not be allowed to repeat themselves in Stuttgart!"

Last Saturday there were massive riots on the sidelines of an event organized by Eritrean clubs in Stuttgart. 32 police officers were injured. More than 200 people were arrested at short notice. Investigations are underway for, among other things, dangerous bodily harm and serious breach of the peace. The background to the clashes is an internal Eritrean conflict. The suspects are believed to be opponents of the dictatorship in Eritrea. The association that organized the event is considered to be close to the government.

Martin Plaut posted: " President Isaias has recently held talks with representatives of both sides in Sudan's 'war of the generals' that erupted in April this year. He met Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, generally referred to as Hemedti, in Asmara in January 2023. Then, a week ago, " Martin Plaut

President Isaias has recently held talks with representatives of both sides in Sudan's 'war of the generals' that erupted in April this year.

He met Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, generally referred to as Hemedti, in Asmara in January 2023. Then, a week ago, he met the Sudanese Democratic Bloc and other political parties allied with General Al-Burhan, leader of the Sudanese Armed Forces.

Isaias clearly wants to portray himself as a mediator; a diplomat. But this ignores his long-term ambitions inside Sudan.

At one level the Eritrean role in Sudan is well known. Eritrean security forces operate across the country and are particularly strong in Khartoum and in Kassala. They are capable of not only spying on the large Eritrean exile community in Sudan, but can seize them and abduct them, if the need arises.

But the Eritrean President's relationship with Sudan goes much deeper than that.

Isaias's early Sudanese links

In his seminal work, Conversations with Eritrean Political Prisoners, Dan Connell explains how Isaias arrived in Sudan in September 1966 after leaving his university studies in Addis Ababa, to join the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF). Haile 'Dure' Wond'ensae (today a political prisoner in Eritrea) came to meet him in the Sudanese town Kassala in December 1966.

Isaias immediately took Haile aside, telling him not to say a word to the ELF leadership about what they wanted to do. "This thing is completely opposed to what we were thinking, and we cannot talk about it here," he said. So the two men went to a local restaurant and started plotting: their aim was a clandestine organisation within the ELF. "And we said, this is a very dangerous endeavor."

From that tiny cell, of just three people (the third was Mussie Tesfamikael, who was killed in 1973) the Eritrean People's Liberation Front was officially founded in 1977. Although Isaias was the real leader, he took control via the Eritrean People's Revolutionary Party, which was the Marxist organisation directing the EPLF.

During its long years of fighting the Ethiopian government (as well as fighting a civil war with other Eritrean movements, including the ELF) Isaias ensured that it had a rear base from which to operate.

The EPLF had a safe house in Port Sudan and a massive supply depot in Port Sudan, which I visited when I went into the EPLF held areas of Eritrea in the 1980's. Having strong relations with Sudan, and with Sudanese political leaders, has been part of Isaias's strategy for the past fifty years.

Isaias and Sudan's National Democratic Alliance

The National Democratic Alliance was formed in 1989 to oppose the regime of Omar Hassan al-Bashir after he seized power in a military coup on June 6, 1989.

It brought together a range of political parties (from the Democratic Unionist Party and the Umma party to the Sudanese Communist Party), ethnic parties like the Beja Congress and the trade unions.

It was formed to lead the popular struggle against the new dictatorship in Sudan and the fundamentalist regime of the National Islamic Front (NIF) that was the power behind the throne on which Omar al-Bashir sat.

The National Democratic Alliance was to resist, and then openly fight, the Omar al-Bashir government, and the Eritrean role in this struggle was described in detail by Ahmed Hassan in two lengthy articles in African Affairs, which can be found in full here and here.

Drawing on visits to Eritrea, in the period 1996–2003, Ahmed Hassan explained how President Isaias attempted to become involved in Sudanese affairs and finally tried to overthrow the Sudanese government.

Isaias accused the Sudanese Islamists of backing a Eritrean movement - Islamic Jihad. On 5 December 1994, Eritrea severed diplomatic relations with Sudan and subsequently invited the NDA to move its headquarters into the former Sudanese embassy in Asmara. 

As Ahmed Hassan explains, Omar al-Bashir was "viewed at that time by Eritrea, Ethiopia, and the U.S. as a destabilizing factor within the region posing serious threats with its adoption of a political Islamic agenda and the subsequent support to Islamic militants from Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia. That period also marked honeymoon of the relations between the U.S. and the 'new breed’ of African leaders represented by Isaias Afewerki, Meles Zenawi and Yoweri Museveni."

In 1996 this led to a dramatic re-orientation of forces and the formation of the Sudan Alliances forces, which brought in elements of the Sudanese military, under Brigadier Abdel Aziz Khalid, former commander of the air defence force in Khartoum. A new alliances of forces came about including the southern Sudanese movement, the SPLA and the United States.

Abdel Aziz was able to see the new opportunities for introducing a new qualitative change to the political formula of the NDA. This was a direct result of contacts at three levels, with the Eritrean leadership, with SPLA/M, as well as from hints that were brought to him through the direct contacts of Dr. Taisier M. Ali with John Prendergast related to the potential support of the U.S to armed interventions by Northern Sudanese factions that could lead to the destabilization of the government in Khartoum.

https://africanarguments.org/2009/10/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-sudan-alliance-forces-1/

Although the Sudanese military were now involved, according to Ahmed Hassan they had little appetite for an armed revolt against Omar al-Bashir and the Islamists.

“As far as the Northerners are concerned, they don’t have a mentality of rebels”, One Eritrean official was quoted as saying in, in frustration. “For a long time they were against armed struggle, saying that the regime would be overthrown by a popular uprising. Now they have changed, but they don’t know how to take up weapons”. That was definitely the role Eritrea decided to take in the mid-1990s. Teach them to fight and support them in their fight...The setup was complete, the Eritrean regional aspiration of having an allied movement in Khartoum, and the plans of the U.S. to escalate the efforts to destabilize and topple the NIF regime in Khartoum by opening new military fronts in the north, and the personal aspirations and agenda of the SAF leadership, all came together.

https://africanarguments.org/2009/10/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-sudan-alliance-forces-1/

It was reported that the Americans came behind this alliance in an attempt to end Omar al-Bashir's grip on the Sudanese state.

In 1996 the US government decided to send nearly $20 million of military equipment through the 'front-line' states of Ethiopia, Eritrea and Uganda to help the Sudanese opposition overthrow the Khartoum regime. US officials denied that the military aid for the SPLA and the Sudanese Allied Forces (SAF), described as 'non-lethal' -- including radios, uniforms, boots and tents -- was targeted at Sudan. The Pentagon and CIA considered Sudan to be second only to Iran as a staging ground for international terrorism.

https://irp.fas.org/world/para/spla.htm

The Islamist regime of Omar al-Bashir was under a full-scale assault, according to Ahmed Hassan.

[T]he invasion of Sudan was set in motion, with direct involvement of the Ugandan forces in the South, the Ethiopian forces at the Blue Nile and in the South, and the Eritrean forces at the eastern front, in full support to the SPLA, SAF and the smaller NDA armed groups.

The Ethiopian army support for the SPLA and SAF involved cross border military assistance that permitted the SPLA to capture the border town of Kurmuk and Qessan, a town in Sudan’s Blue Nile region just across the border from Ethiopia in a surprise attack on Sunday January, 12 1997.

Simultaneously, SAF and the Tana Brigade of the SPLA, managed to capture the army garrisons at Yakuru, Babsheer and Menza in the northern Blue Nile area. In less than a week, the SPLA/SAF joint forces had advanced to within 30 km of the key eastern town of Damazin, site of the main hydroelectric dam which supplies Khartoum with most of its power. ...

https://africanarguments.org/2009/10/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-sudan-alliance-forces-1/

With the increased support of the U.S. and its allies within the Greater Horn of Africa Initiative, the advance of the SPLA and SAF seemed unstoppable.

The SAF leadership was intoxicated by its success, believing it was near victory. In March 1997 the leadership of SAF was giving the regime in Khartoum a maximum lifespan of 6-12 months before it collapsed as the forces led by General Abdel Aziz Khalid, threatened the city. (Dan Connell, “Sudan: In the Eye of the African Storm,’ Contributions in Black Studies, Vol. 15 (1997).)

Reprieve for al-Bashir and Sudan's Islamists

But the overthrow of the al-Bashir regime was not to be. Divisions emerged within the Sudanese opposition and then - in May 1998 - a border war between Eritrea and Ethiopia erupted.

The delicate alliance of forces that had united Asmara, Addis Ababa, Kampala and Washington fell apart. President Isaias has more pressing concerns as his forces faced repeated Ethiopian offensives.

Out of fears to have to deal with new military front with Sudan while it was involved in the 1998-2000 conflict with Ethiopia, the Eritrean authorities immediately gave a clear signal to the NDA forces to slow down their operations. The roles drastically changed, from attacks and advance on the Sudan territories, to a new role of merely providing protection to the Eritrean borders against incursions from the Eritrean Islamic Jihad that was supported by the NIF as well as from any threats that could directly be posed by the Sudan government forces.

https://africanarguments.org/2009/10/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-sudan-alliance-forces-2/

Then, on 11 September 2001, al-Qaeda attacked New York and brought down the twin towers, as well as crashing an aircraft into the Pentagon.

The world spun on its axis. The United States put aside all else and concentrated on eliminating Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader, who had lived in Sudan until being expelled in 1996.

The implications for the Sudanese opposition was predictable: the US ended its dispute with Omar al-Bashir and reached out to the Sudanese government that it had been attempting to overthrow.

The collaboration between the CIA and the Sudanese Intelligence apparatus, that started in 2001, was culminated by a CIA decision, later on, to fly the chief of the Sudan Intelligence, Maj. Gen. Sallah Abdallah Gosh, for a secret meeting in Washington aimed at cementing cooperation against terrorism as was brought in the Los Angeles Post, on June 17, 2005. Khartoum had become “an indispensable part of CIA’s counterterrorism strategy.” That turn of events after the 9/11 of course resulted in devastating implications on the NDA in general and on SAF in particular.

https://africanarguments.org/2009/10/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-sudan-alliance-forces-2/

The combination of 9/11 and the Ethiopian-Eritrean border war had blown apart the movement to overthrow the Sudanese regime. Omar al-Bashir and his Islamist government was safe - at least for the time being.

President Isaias left fuming

He had emerged on the wrong side of both conflicts. Isaias was forced to do a U turn.

In January 2000 Eritrea and Sudan officially restored diplomatic relations. The Sudanese embassy in the Eritrean capital was been handed back to the Khartoum government, having previously been occupied by the Sudanese National Democratic Alliance.

The only element that did not change was Isaias's determination to plot and - when it was in his interest - to intervene in Sudan. As his meetings with Sudanese politicians in recent weeks indicate, it is an ambition that he has not abandoned.

Source: Der Spiegel

September 16, 2023, 9:31 p.m

Confrontation in Stuttgart: There were violent riots at a meeting of Eritrean clubs Photo: Jason Cheplyakov / dpa

There were violent riots at an Eritrea event in Stuttgart . Up to 200 people attacked participants in the event and police officers with stones, bottles and wooden slats, a police spokesman told the German Press Agency on Saturday. 24 police officers were injured, two of them seriously. A police spokesman reported this on Saturday evening. Four people have been arrested so far. Videos on social media show men attacking police officers with wooden boards and bottles.

A police spokesman reported that 200 people gathered in the Roman fort on Saturday afternoon for an event organized by the Association of Eritrean Clubs in Stuttgart and the surrounding area. It is an information event. According to the police spokesman, the clubs sympathized with the dictatorial government in Eritrea. According to the police, opponents of the regime met in small groups at Bad Cannstatt train station and Stuttgart main station and made their way to the venue. The situation there quickly escalated.

The police are flying in additional emergency services

The officers defended themselves against the attackers with batons and pepper spray and tried to separate the groups and keep the attackers out while the event was still ongoing in the building. The streets around the Roman fort were closed. Emergency services were flown in by helicopter and called in from surrounding headquarters. For hours, the police reported skirmishes and a confusing situation. In the evening it was said that the situation was largely stable. The police surrounded 170 men to record their personal details. They are all accused of serious breach of the peace.

From the perspective of the organizers of the Eritrea meeting in Stuttgart, the police underestimated the situation. "We asked for police protection and said what these people are capable of," said Salomon T., who organized the event and did not want to be quoted with his full name. The event was a “seminar with information about Eritrea”. 70 people had to wait in the hall during the attacks, said Salomon T.

"It was very dangerous."

A police spokesman replied that there had always been disruptions at such events in the past, but there was no knowledge that they would be so massive and intense.

Valentino Tosto runs an ice cream parlor right on the corner of the action. He was shocked that evening. "This is very bad for us," he said. The rioters took away chairs and stands. He said, "It was very dangerous."

Eritrea, with a population of around three million, is located in northeast Africa on the Red Sea and is largely isolated internationally. Since independence from Ethiopia was won in a decades-long war 30 years ago, President Isaias Afewerki has ruled the country in a one-party dictatorship. Other parties are banned and freedom of expression and freedom of the press are severely restricted. There is neither a parliament nor independent courts or civil society organizations. There is also a strict military service and forced labor system, from which many people flee abroad. There are always conflicts between supporters and opponents of the regime.

In July there were riots at an Eritrea festival in Gießen, Hesse, with at least 26 injured police officers when opponents of the event attacked security forces by throwing stones and bottles and setting off smoke bombs. Among other things, the officers used batons against them. The organizers of the event in Giessen were close to the controversial leadership of the East African country. In August, violent riots broke out at an Eritrean festival in Stockholm , leaving more than 50 people injured.

There are already initial political reactions to the incidents in Stuttgart. For example, Federal Agriculture Minister Cem Ödzemir (Greens) wrote on Platform X that the perpetrators of violence must be brought to justice quickly.

Source: Neue Zurcher Zeitung

By: Simon Hehli 04.09.2023

They are disturbing images that resemble each other - whether in July in Giessen, Germany, or recently in Tel Aviv, in the Norwegian city of Bergen and in Opfikon: hostile groups of Eritrean refugees beat each other or police officers until blood flows.

For right-wing populists, this is a symbol of the West's failed migration policy. Thus, Roger Köppel says in a variation of Peter Scholl-Latour's bon mot: "Whoever brings half of Eritrea to himself becomes Eritrea himself." For the head of "Weltwoche", this is proof that the image of the "supposedly peaceful" Eritreans is false.

It is true that many of the refugees from the north-east African country are poorly integrated and live on social welfare. But a little differentiation does no harm. The riots are not simply an expression of an archaic joy in scuffles; rather, they have a highly political background. The Eritrean diaspora in Switzerland and elsewhere is deeply divided. On the one side are the supporters of the long-term head of state Isayas Afewerki. They or their parents mostly came to Europe in the 1970s or 1980s, fleeing the brutal secessionist war against Ethiopia. Afewerki, who won this battle and led Eritrea to independence, is a freedom hero for them.

The fact that the country under Afewerki long ago degenerated into a dictatorship in which citizens are conscripted into years of "national service" and opposition figures are arrested and tortured does not concern this group. It is quite different from those compatriots who are on the other side: Since the turn of the millennium, they have fled the repression and lack of prospects in Eritrea.

Foreign currency thanks to blackmail

But the regime does not leave them alone. The dictator sets his agents on the emigrants. They collect a foreign tax of two percent of their income - also with the threat that otherwise something will happen to their relatives back home. These are important sources of foreign currency for Afewerki. There are even informers among the interpreters who translate for Eritreans in the asylum procedure. They intimidate the asylum seekers and manipulate their statements. The federal authorities have been aware of this deplorable state of affairs for years, but so far they have done little about it.

If Afewerki supporters now organise alleged "cultural festivals" at which representatives of the unscrupulous regime perform and collect donations, this is a provocation for the dissidents. Of course, this does not justify violence - those who seek refuge in Switzerland have to abide by the law. But it does explain the anger that is repeatedly unleashed here and in other host countries. And this anger does not diminish in view of the fact that some states show no desire to put a stop to the machinations of the Eritrean government.