312 ሬሳ ግዳያት ኤርትራዊን ብምትሕብባር ሓለዋ ባሕሪ ኢጣልያ ካብ ባሕሪ ምስ ወጽአ |
Shalom Eritrea ! ! !
All about Eritrea & Eritreans
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Dozens Eritrean migrants die after boat sinks off Italy's coast
Dead bodies are covered with sheets at the port of Lampedusa |
Italian coast guard Commander Floriana Segreto told that at least 73 people had been confirmed dead with another 151 people rescued, adding that "lots more" people remained in the water. Citing authorities, Reuters later reported the death toll had reached 92.
Officials said there were between 400 and 500 migrants on the boat when it sank in the Mediterranean Sea off the Sicilian island of Lampedusa.Lampedusa Mayor Giusy Nicolini told Reuters the death toll was rising and the victims were mostly Somalis and Eritreans.
"It's horrific, like a cemetery, they are still bringing them out," Nicolini said, adding that the dead included at least one child and a pregnant woman.
Coast guard ships and helicopters from across the region, as well as local fishing boats were on the scene trying to find survivors, coast guard spokesman Marco Di Milla told The Associated Press.
The vessel was thought to have left Libya, according to the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR.
some of the passengers rescued near Lampedusa early on Thursday. |
Thursday's migrant shipwreck was one of the deadliest in recent times and the second one this week off Italy: On Monday, 13 men drowned while trying to reach southern Sicily when their ship ran aground just a few yards from shore.
According to the U.N. refugee agency, 8,400 migrants landed in Italy and Malta in the first six months of the year, almost double the 4,500 who arrived during the first half of 2012.The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees had recorded 40 deaths in the first half of 2013 for migrants arriving in Italy and Malta, and a total of 500 for all of 2012, based on interviews with survivors. Fortress Europe, an Italian observatory that tracks migrant deaths reported by the media, says about 6,450 people died in the Canal of Sicily between 1994 and 2012.
Thursday, September 19, 2013
New sanctions on Eritrea
Security Council placed additional sanctions on Eritrea on 5th December 2011 |
On 18 September 2001 the Eritrean government closed all independent media outlets, detaining several journalists and eleven of fifteen prominent ruling party members who had called for democracy, along with their family members. None of the detainees have been charged or tried. While on several occasions members of the ruling regime have denied all knowledge of named detainees, unwittingly transforming these cases into enforced disappearances, regime apologists often attempt to portray the lack of due process as protection against certain death sentences.
Credible reports indicate the detainees are held incommunicado in life threatening conditions in Era Ero, a purpose-built remote prison, where they are subjected to privations and inhuman and degrading treatment. Their hands are reportedly cuffed in front of their bodies during the day and behind their backs at night. They are held in indefinite solitary confinement, have not been allowed to see other prisoners, have no access to family or legal representatives, are referred to by a number, and receive no form of mental stimulation, since guards are ordered not to converse with them. They are also subjected to torture. At least 15 prisoners are reported to have died as a result of the harsh conditions, while nine are said to be suffering severe health challenges.
In a 2003 ruling on the cases of eleven of the detained politicians the African Commission found Eritrea to be in violation of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, and urged the government to free the individuals immediately and pay them compensation. In a 2007 ruling the Commission stressed that "no political situation justifies the wholesale violation of human rights", and called for detained journalists to either be released or brought "to a speedy and fair trial." The Commission also called on Eritrea to lift its press ban, to grant the detainees immediate access to their families and legal representatives, and to ensure they received compensation. The Eritrean government has ignored both decisions.
Elsa Chyrum, Director of HRCE said: "The treatment meted out to the innocent prisoners in Era Ero is barbaric and inhumane. No government should be allowed to subject its people to treatment that amounts to a crime against humanity. Twelve years is too long. Given the severity of the situation and Eritrea's continued flouting of the African Commission rulings, it is time for the international community to seriously consider imposing targeted sanctions on the President and his close political allies as pressure for the release of these detainees."
Khataza Gondwe, CSW's Africa and Middle East Team Leader said: "The treatment meted out to these prisoners is an affront to human dignity and a violation of Eritrea's obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the African Charter. These people peacefully requested a free and democratic Eritrea where the rule of law was upheld, yet for the last twelve years they have been held in deliberately life-threatening conditions where fifteen may have died and others are reportedly close to death. Time is of the essence. CSW echoes the call for sanctions targeting key individuals within the Eritrean government with a view to securing compliance with the African Commission decisions that stipulate the immediate release of these prisoners."
"MeqaleH Forto (መቓልሕ ፎርቶ)" Underground Eritrean newspaper published
An underground newspaper was circulated on the streets of Asmara
yesterday, 12 years after the Eritrean government banned all privately
owned media and arrested journalists and proprietors, Freedom Friday
Movement (Arbi Harnet) has announced.
MeqaleH Forto, which means Echoes of Forto, is said to have been inspired by the attempted coup on 21 January this year. The paper is produced by a small team both inside Eritrea and in the diaspora, and is distributed using informal links and networks.
Freedom Friday activists say that while their pilot circulations have been limited, there is plenty of room for expansion.
In its inaugural edition, MeqaleH Forto included Tigrigna and Arabic articles about Freedom Friday and the other diaspora based resistance movements, in line with the objectives of the movement to link the resistance inside the country to those in the diaspora.
The paper is financed by supporters of the movement, who have are mainly been mobilised via Facebook and other social media platforms.
"The date is significant for us as the very last editions of Eritrea's fledgling private newspapers ran last 12 years ago today," the team said. "While we are aware that one underground newsletter with extremely limited circulation isn't the answer to freedom of press in a secretive country such as Eritrea, it is our contribution to keeping that hope alive for us and others to build on."
Initial reactions to the inaugural issue were said to be generally positive and Freedom Friday is now looking for media professionals and those with links and networks inside the country to support in the production and distribution of subsequent issues.
MeqaleH Forto, which means Echoes of Forto, is said to have been inspired by the attempted coup on 21 January this year. The paper is produced by a small team both inside Eritrea and in the diaspora, and is distributed using informal links and networks.
Freedom Friday activists say that while their pilot circulations have been limited, there is plenty of room for expansion.
In its inaugural edition, MeqaleH Forto included Tigrigna and Arabic articles about Freedom Friday and the other diaspora based resistance movements, in line with the objectives of the movement to link the resistance inside the country to those in the diaspora.
The paper is financed by supporters of the movement, who have are mainly been mobilised via Facebook and other social media platforms.
"The date is significant for us as the very last editions of Eritrea's fledgling private newspapers ran last 12 years ago today," the team said. "While we are aware that one underground newsletter with extremely limited circulation isn't the answer to freedom of press in a secretive country such as Eritrea, it is our contribution to keeping that hope alive for us and others to build on."
Initial reactions to the inaugural issue were said to be generally positive and Freedom Friday is now looking for media professionals and those with links and networks inside the country to support in the production and distribution of subsequent issues.
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Ethiopia opened new camp for Eritrean refugees
Eritrean refugee camp Shimelba, Ethiopia |
The UN refugee agency has opened a new camp in northern Ethiopia to
house the increasing number of Eritrean refugees entering the country. A
total 776 Eritrean refugees have already been transferred to Hitsats
Camp, which can house up to 20,000 refugees.
The government has also set up a temporary medical clinic and reception facilities for arriving refugees.
So far this year, UNHCR and the government's refugee agency, the Administration for Refugee and Returnee Affairs (ARRA), have registered more than 4,000 Eritrean refugees, overwhelming the capacity of the existing three camps in the region, which house nearly 49,000 refugees. A large number of the new arrivals are unaccompanied minors who require special protection.
Eritrean refugees board a bus for transfer to a new refugee camp Hitsats. |
The predominance of young men is a pattern observed throughout the region, where Eritrean refugees tell UNHCR staff they are fleeing indefinite military service for both men and women.
In eastern Sudan, the UN refugee agency has also seen a significant number of children arriving on their own, but the number of refugee arrivals has dropped to between 400 and 600 per month this year from 2,000 a month in 2012. The total number of Eritrean refugees in Sudan is more than 114,500.
In Djibouti, arrivals are holding steady, at 112 for the first five months of this year, practically the same as the 110 Eritreans who arrived in the same period last year.
Eritrean refugees cross into Ethiopia through 16 entry points from which they are collected and brought to a reception station for screening and registration. Before departure from the reception center, the refugees are issued with basic assistance items, including sleeping mats, blankets, jerrycans, water buckets, soap and mosquito nets. They are also provided with tents and food rations once they get to the new camp.
As of the end of May, Ethiopia is hosting 71,833 Eritrean refugees in four camps in Tigray region and two others in the Afar region in north-eastern Ethiopia. Transfers to the new camp are taking place every second day.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)