In a timely message of 9 February 2020 to the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Mr. Tesfai Woldemichael (Degiga), Chairman of the Eritrean People’s Democratic Party (EPDP),  once more told African leaders that Eritrea and its people  deserve their most urgent attention because the country is “a smouldering fire” that can go ablaze anytime soon.

“This is an Eritrean SOS message, an alarm call to Africa”, the EPDP Chair message added.

The two-day 33^rd Session of the Assembly of the AU, which is expected to wind up today, February 10, is convened under the theme of “Silencing the Guns: Creating Conducive Conditions for Africa’s Development” and the EPDP Chairman described the slogan  as  “a very much relevant to the Eritrean condition.”

Addressed to the AU Commission Chairman, Mr.  Mr. Moussa  Faki Mahamat, and copied to delegations of  African leaders attending the Summit,  the Eritrean message listed the following facts to the attention of the AU Summit:

• That the Eritrean-Ethiopian border problem that cost nearly 100,000 lives, is NOT yet resolved;
• That the past 20 years of no war-no peace are NOT yet over in Eritrea after having caused massive suffering to the people, nearly a third of whom are now refugees scattered all over the globe;
• That Eritreans at home and those in exile are bitterly unhappy; and
• That the AU Summit should guess the consequence of this situation in a highly militarized society in which a huge percentage of the population knows how to handle guns.

The Eritrean message thus asked the Summit to include in its agenda with the aim of committing itself to help the implementation of the final and binding ruling on Ethio-Eritrean border, and to make an AU pressure on the Eritrean regime to implement all the resolutions and recommendations of the UN Human Rights Council, the findings of the UN Commission of Inquiry as well as the repeated calls of UN Human Rights Rapporteurs for Eritrea.