Hundreds protest in Tel Aviv, demand Eritrean migrants deportations

Calling for the deportation of Sudanese and Eritrean migrants from Israel after an Eritrean man allegedly raped an 83-year-old Tel Aviv woman last weekend, hundreds of demonstrators marched from the city’s Hatikvah neighborhood to its central bus station Monday night.

South Tel Aviv residents protest the presence of African immigrants in May

The event, called “Blowing up the Silence,” was organized by MK Michael Ben Ari, of the newly formed Otzma Leyisrael party.

A heavy police presence watched over the demonstrators, who operated under the slogan “Getting Sodom (and Gomorrah) out of Tel Aviv and returning it to Africa,” called on the prime minister to “go home,” chanted “Sudanese to Sudan and leftists with them,” and said “Eli Yishai has failed,” according to Walla News.

Ben Ari told the crowd that southern Tel Aviv neighborhoods had been taken over by “infiltrators” saying, “When there are no police and there is no government, only we can stop the next rape.”

Interior Minister Eli Yishai earlier called on the justice and foreign ministries to give him the authority to deport all remaining African migrants, whom he and other right-wing politicians consistently refer to as “infiltrators.”

“This shocking rape illustrates the lost sense of security Israeli citizens feel in areas with a high concentration of infiltrators,” Yishai said. On Monday it was reported that Yishai’s Shas party had created a campaign video that focused on the ostensible danger posed to Israeli society by migrants.The rape apparently took place over several hours in the 83-year-old woman’s apartment. The suspect allegedly bolted after a member of the woman’s family came for a visit and caught him in the act.

Police search for husband of murdered Eritrean

An Eritrean woman was found murdered in an apartment near Tel Aviv’s Central Bus Station on Sunday, and police have designated her husband as the main suspect in the killing and are currently searching for him.

The murder took place at a building at 20 Solomon Street, on a strip thick with brothels, drug dens and African migrant bars. Inside the building, light blue hallways lead to small, divided apartments housing African migrants, typically in cramped conditions.It was in one of these apartments on the third floor that police found the woman on Sunday afternoon, in critical condition shortly before she passed away. A paramedic from the ZAKA rescue and recovery organization, who was helping collect the woman’s body, said she was found with a single fatal stab wound, the knife still embedded in her neck. He added that there were no children or any other people living in the apartment with the young couple, who Tel Aviv police said were in their 20s.

In the early evening Sunday, a lone Sudanese man who had just returned from work sat on a six-pack of water in one of the building’s stairwells, waiting to be allowed up to his apartment on the floor where the murder took place.

Groups of African migrants huddled outside the murder scene, watching the forensic officers in their white sterile gowns walk in and out of the building, speaking in Tigrinya and Arabic. When asked if he was at the building when the murder took place, an African man standing outside the building began pointing at a streetwalker, saying she had short-changed him earlier in the day, before eventually adding that he knew nothing of the killing.

The incident was one in an almost daily series of such violent acts between African migrants on the strip, according to Yossi Natani, a 60-yearold Israeli who owns a kiosk in the building next door.

Natani, who said he has run the store for 20 years, said that “every night something happens, they get drunk and fight with each other every night, throw bottles everywhere – its always like this.”

Natani said he was not at work at the time of the murder, and that he only came in at 3 p.m. to work until 11.

He added that investigators had been in and out of the building all day, and that in the late afternoon they took surveillance video from his store, which has seven cameras set up in and around its perimeter.

A source at the Foreign Ministry said that in cases like the one Sunday, after police are finished with their pathological investigation of the body, the ministry will contact the Eritrean mission in Tel Aviv to arrange for the return of the remains.

Eritrean migrant arrested for rape of 83-year-old woman

on Monday 30th Dec.. Israel police  released information about a brutal rape that took place in the area of Tel Aviv's Old Central Bus Station over a week ago. An Eritrean national in his twenties was arrested on Monday a week ago on suspicion that he raped an 83-year-old woman in the yard of her home on Erlinger Street. The two-hour ordeal ended when her nephew came to visit her. The old woman is currently in stable condition. The suspect will be served with an indictment in the coming days.

The suspect leaving his detenton assessment on Monday

On the afternoon of Friday Dec. 21, Tel Aviv police arrived at the scene, where they encountered the 83-year-old woman and her nephew. The woman was transported to Wolfson Hospital in Holon's Center for Sexual Assault Victims. The woman testified that she had been on her way home at 10 a.m. when the suspect saw her and dragged her into the yard of her house. There, for about two hours, he brutally raped the woman until her nephew came to visit her. At that point the suspect fled.

Immediately upon receiving the complaint the police launched an investigation. Within a few days they managed to track down the suspect, who was known to police for property crimes. He did not cooperate during his investigation but the police have enough evidence, including DNA samples, to put him on trial. On Monday morning the police announced plans to serve an indictment against him within five days as well as a request to remand him until the conclusion of legal proceedings against him.

The police are stressing that this is an isolated and unusual incident. In the past year, there have only been two rapes in the area by foreign migrants, they said. Police came under criticism Monday for only releasing the information about the incident a week after it occurred.

The alleged victim has been living on Erlinger Street for many years, where several murders of prostitutes have taken place in recent years. Most of the brothels in the area of the Old Central Bus Station are on the street.

Speaking to reporters, Yiftach District Commander David Gaz appeared unaware that there were many brothels on the street and said, "I don't know if this happened near a brothel because I wasn't there."

Gaz said he does not believe there will be disturbances of the peace following the incident because it is an isolated occurrence. "In any case, we are deployed in great numbers due to New Year celebrations, but I don't believe there will be disturbances because the public is not stupid and will not take an isolated incident and turn it into something sweeping."

Detained Eritrean refugees appeal to Israelis, rights groups for aid

The letter below was written by Eritrean refugees, held in administrative detention in Saharonim prison. Under the Prevention of Infiltration Law, they can be imprisoned for three years or more. 

Saharonim and Ketsiot prisons (photo: Noam Sheizaf)

(To whom it may concern):
Subject: The judgement against Eritrean refugees in Israel
As we all know, it has been years since we were compelled to leave our country as a result of a deteriorating economic and political crisis. We came to Israel to escape intolerable levels of repression and human rights violations in our country. However, we are now concerned to learn that the government of Israel is preparing to implement a policy which forces asylum seekers to remain in prison camps for three years, or forcibly return them to their country of origin. We are also psychologically depressed by the prolonged stay in prisons. The reasons for our depression are as follows:
1. Most of us were serving in the army for many years without pay. Many have went through untold suffering in prison centers, have sustained some injuries during the war, and cannot tolerate hardships any longer.
2. Some of us are underage children who fled compulsory military conscription at schools and are displaced accordingly.
3. Some of us are over the military conscription age and were civil servants who refused to be conscripted on account of our age and were accordingly imprisoned or dismissed from jobs. We were forced to leave our country in search of safe have where we would be to take care of our families.
4. We also have women some of whom are mothers. Others have left their children in Eritrea and many of them are wasting their reproductive and marriageable age in the prison camps.
We came to Israel after crossing the borders of three countries and overcoming incredible levels of hardship. The imminent decision of a three-year forced stay in prison camps or forcible return to Eritrea comes as distressful news to us. We have endured in the past tremendous levels of hardship, which includes dreadful torture and ransom of tens of thousands of U.S. dollars by smugglers and human traffickers. Some of us have left their children in Eritrea and are being forced here to live in detached prison camps cordoned by walls and gates.
We are all refugees like all other refugees in other countries and those who have entered Israel previously. We haven’t done anything to be condemned for such kind of treatment and segregation. What did we do to be detained in cordoned sections? The situation is unbearable and is causing upon us a great deal of psychological depression. We beg concerned government bodies in Israel to find a solution to our predicament. If the government of Israel cannot find a solution to our problem, we kindly appeal for our request to be communicated to the relevant organs of the United Nations, and human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and others.
Signed,
Eritrean refugees in Israeli refugee prison camps

Sudan detains two Eritrean journalists

Two Eritrean opposition journalists in Sudan have been detained by Khartoum's intelligence service, an Eritrean opposition source said on Tuesday. Abdalal Mahmoud of the Eritrean Centre for Media Services (www.adoulis.com) and Haroun Adam, who has also written for the foreign-based opposition website, have been held since Monday, according to the Khartoum-based opposition source.

Snapshot of  Eritrean Center for media  homepage

"We are very concerned about the well-being of Abdalal Mahmoud Hiabu and Haroun Adam," said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour. "We call on authorities to immediately disclose their whereabouts, legal status, and condition."
The journalists' colleagues and family members told CPJ that the two journalists have not been seen since being summoned Monday to Sudan's National Intelligence Security Services for an investigation. Nassir Mahmoud Hiabu said he received a call from his brother, Abdalal, who told him that he was inside a police car and that his phone was about to be confiscated. Abdalal's phone has been turned off since. Nassir has tried to inquire about his brother's situation, but his whereabouts are unknown.
Jamal Osman Hamad, editor-in-chief of Eritrean Centre for Media Services' website, told CPJ that both journalists, who contribute news and opinion pieces to the site, are in Sudan seeking asylum. The Centre analyzes Eritrean news coverage, especially news that relates to the Eritrean opposition; translates it into Arabic; and publishes a biweekly online bulletin and a monthly publication targeting the Eritrean diaspora in Sudan.
Eritrea is the most censored country in the world, according to CPJ research, and dozens of Eritrean journalists have fled into exile over the past decade, many of them to Sudan, where they struggle to fulfill basic needs and risk harassment, detention, and deportation.
Hamad was himself arrested by the Sudanese government for three months last year because of his writing on Eritrea. He was held incommunicado for eight weeks, and no charges were ever filed. Hamad's detention took place less than a week after an official visit to Sudan by Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki in October 2011.
On October 17, 2011, over 300 Eritreans were expelled from Sudan to their home country without their cases being referred to the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, according to the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information based in Cairo, Egypt. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees' 2012 country profile on Sudan confirmed that asylum seekers there are at risk of forced return.

UN : Eritrea must cooperate in human rights dialogue,

The Government of Eritrea must cooperate with an international mandate to provide “an objective, fair and impartial picture” of the human rights situation in the Horn of Africa country, a United Nations independent expert urged today.

High Commissioner António Guterres with Eritrean refugees in Shagarab I camp

“I hope that the Eritrean Government would consider the mandate of the Special Rapporteur as an opportunity to start a fresh and constructive dialogue on human rights issues that have been raised by the international community and other stakeholders,” Beedwantee Keetharuth, the newly-appointed Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Eritrea, stated in a news release.
According to multiple reports, the human rights situation in Eritrea is generally viewed as being poor, with allegations of arbitrary arrest and detention, as well as widespread constraints on freedom of speech. In one example dating to early September of this year, the UN condemned the deaths of three Eritrean media workers who had been kept in a prison camp for over a decade.
In July this year, the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution in which it strongly condemned the continued widespread and systematic violations of human rights committed by the Eritrean authorities, the severe restrictions on freedom of opinion and expression, and the forced conscription of citizens for indefinite periods. At the same time, it decided to appoint a Special Rapporteur on the matter.
In keeping with her mandate, Ms. Keetharuth, a lawyer from Mauritius with extensive experience in monitoring and documenting human rights violations across Africa, is expected to present her report on Eritrea’s human rights situation to the Council in June 2013.
Ahead of that, she had requested meetings with the country’s diplomats in Geneva and London at the start of her mandate this past November. She noted, however, that the meetings had yet to take place.
“The aim was to introduce myself and present my vision of the mandate in a spirit of openness, as well as to explore avenues for cooperation,” she continued. “I have now requested to travel to Eritrea in early 2013.”
In the news release, Ms. Keetharuth expressed faith that the Eritrean Government would ultimately view her mandate as an opportunity to carefully address the country’s “compliance with its human rights obligations as contained in international treaties to which the country is a party.”
In the meantime, the UN expert added that she would engage with other parties affected by human rights issues in the Eritrea, including those who consider themselves to be the victims of alleged human rights violations, human rights defenders and other civil society actors.
Independent experts, or special rapporteurs such as Ms. Keetharuth, are appointed by the Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a country situation or a specific human rights theme. The positions are honorary and the experts are not UN staff, nor are they paid for their work.

Israel operating spy bases in Eritrea

Israel is operating an intelligence gathering base in the East African nation of Eritrea to monitor Iran's activities in the Red Sea, the Stratfor Global Intelligence company revealed Tuesday.

The company says it uses a unique, intelligence-based approach to gathering information via open-source monitoring and a global network of human contacts.

According to Stratfor, Israel has a clandestine presence in and around Massawa

In its report on Tuesday, Stratfor wrote: "The tiny country of Eritrea has been accommodating two Middle Eastern rivals in order to face its geopolitical challenges — mainly its fear of invasion by Ethiopia. Iran wants to expand its presence in Eritrea and other East African nations in order to gain influence along the Red Sea, an important route for seaborne international trade. Israel, meanwhile, wants to monitor Iranian activities in the region. By allowing foreign security operations in its territory, Eritrea has become another venue for Israel and Iran's ongoing rivalry."

In exchange for resources, possibly including modest amounts of cash and weapons, Eritrea has exhibited a willingness to become a base of support for Middle Eastern powers that want to exert greater influence in the Horn of Africa. As a result, Eritrea and its waters in the Gulf of Aden have become another venue for Iran and Israel's rivalry. Israel and Iran's engagement with Eritrea is an extension of their rivalry over the Red Sea, which allegedly led to the bombing of the Yarmouk weapons factory in Sudan, Stratfor reported.

Iran's operations in Eritrea are relevant to Tehran's larger goal of controlling the Bab el Mandeb strait and the water route to the Suez Canal. Thus, Iran's presence in Eritrea could be more significant in terms of intelligence gathering than tactical defense, Stratfor says.

Israel also operates inside Eritrea. According to Stratfor diplomatic and media sources, Israel has small naval teams in the Dahlak Archipelago and Massawa and a listening post in Amba Soira. Israel's presence in Eritrea is very focused and precise, involving intelligence gathering in the Red Sea and monitoring Iran's activities. Various Stratfor diplomatic sources have said that Israel's presence in Eritrea is small but significant.

Eritrea wants Israel's friendship for numerous security and political reasons. Eritrea wants to use Israel to influence the United States — an ally of both Israel and Ethiopia — in decisions regarding Eritrea on the international stage. The country also wants to acquire better air defense capabilities to defend against a possible attack from Ethiopia. Moreover, cooperating with Israel is a way for Eritrea to balance its controversial relationship with Tehran, Stratfor reports.

"Israel has good relations with both Eritrea and Ethiopia and is less interested in expanding its presence in Eritrea than Iran. Israel would not want to harm its relations with Ethiopia and other regional countries, as it has a wider interest in East Africa — mainly containing Sudan's Islamist government, which allegedly supports Hamas and other anti-Israeli elements in the Middle East. As Israel has expanded its security cooperation with South Sudan and Kenya in recent years, Eritrea has responded by strengthening its ties with Iran," the report said.

 #  http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=6705

Eritrea Become 4th Leading Jailer of Journalists

CPJ executive director Joel Simon

“We are living in an age when anti-state charges and ‘terrorist’ labels have become the preferred means that governments use to intimidate, detain, and imprison journalists,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. “Criminalizing probing coverage of inconvenient topics violates not only international law, but impedes the right of people around the world to gather, disseminate, and receive independent information.”

The three leading jailers of journalists were Turkey (49), Iran (45), and China (32), where imprisonments followed sweeping crackdowns on criticism and dissent, making use of anti-state charges in retaliation for critical coverage. This pattern is present in most of the countries in the census. In Turkey, the world’s worst jailer, authorities held dozens of Kurdish reporters and editors on terror-related charges and other journalists for allegedly plotting against the government. Following an extensive case-by-case review in 2012, CPJ confirmed journalism-related reasons in numerous cases previously unlisted by the organization, thus significantly raising the country’s total.

CPJ’s 2012 census of imprisoned journalists identified 232 writers, editors, and photojournalists behind bars on December 1, an increase of 53 from 2011 and the highest since the organization began the survey in 1990. The 2012 figure surpasses the previous record of 185 journalists imprisoned in 1996, underlining a disturbing trend of conflating coverage of opposition groups or sensitive topics with terrorism, evident since 2001.

Rounding out the top five jailers were Eritrea, with 28 journalists in prison, and Syria with 15, the worst abusers of the rule of law. None of the journalists in jail in either country have been publicly charged with a crime or brought before a court or trial. In line with findings over the past five years, a little more than half (118) of those held globally were online journalists and more than a third were freelancers.

“With a record number of journalists imprisoned around the world, the time has come to speak out,” said Simon. “We must fight back against governments seeking to cloak their repressive tactics under the banner of fighting terrorism; we must push for broad legislative changes in countries where critical journalism is being criminalized; we must stand up for all those journalists in prison and do all in our power to secure their release; and we must ensure the Internet itself remains an open global platform for critical expression.”

All of the governments included in CPJ’s 2012 census have received letters expressing serious concern. CPJ continues to advocate for the release of four recipients of its International Press Freedom Award who remain imprisoned: Dhondup Wangchen, a Tibetan held in China, Azimjon Askarov in Kyrgyzstan, Shi Tao in China, and Mohammad Davari in Iran. In 2012, CPJ helped 58 imprisoned journalists from around the world win early release.

CPJ also registered some improvement this year: For the first time since 1996, Burma did not rank among the nations jailing journalists. As part of the country’s historic transition to civilian rule, authorities released at least 12 imprisoned journalists in a series of pardons in 2012.

Of the 27 countries imprisoning journalists, the top 5 jailers were:

1. Turkey: 49
2.  Iran: 45
3. China: 32
4. Eritrea: 28
5. Syria: 15
    CPJ's annual census is a snapshot of those incarcerated at midnight on December 1, 2012. It does not include the many journalists imprisoned and released throughout the year, which are otherwise documented on www.cpj.org. Journalists who either disappear or are abducted by nonstate entities such as criminal gangs or militant groups are not included in the prison census. Their cases are classified as “missing” or “abducted.”
   
   

Norway to close its embassy in Eritrea

Norwegian Embassy - Asmara Eritrea

Norway’s government has said that it is soon to close its embassy in Eritrea and some other countries as part of foreign policy re-planning.

“As announced earlier in 2012, changes are also being made to Norway’s diplomatic presence in Africa. The embassy in Asmara (Eritrea) is to be closed. Another mission in the region will then be given responsibility for Eritrea,” Norway’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“The embassies in Abuja (Nigeria) and Nairobi (Kenya) will be given extra resources in order to strengthen their efforts vis-à-vis Niger and Somalia respectively. In addition, staff levels at some missions in Africa will be reduced in order to free up resources,” officials added.
There are many Eritrean refugees in east African countries. They allege that Norway closing its embassy will leave a big gap.
One refugee in Kenya said, “I’m not happy about Norway closing her embassy in Eritrea because officials working there can get impressions about what the poor people of Eritrea need first-hand and aid can be sent there.”
“Foreign embassies are very vital in Eritrea because the wrong elements in government fear to mistreat people in presence of embassy officials,” claimed another in Uganda. “They try to show the embassies that they observe human rights.”

EU updates 'air safety list:' Eritrea banned

The European Commission has updated its list of airlines subject to bans within the EU to include airlines certified in Eritrea. Previously banned airlines from Mauritania have been removed from the ban list.
In a statement released Tuesday on the European Commission's website, the bloc's vice president for transport said Eritrean air carriers were no longer certified to fly in the EU.
"Safety must always come first," Siim Kallas said in the statement, "and we cannot accept any compromise in this area, hence the decision on Eritrea."

Eritrean Airlines Boeing 767

The airlines that had received their certification in Eritrea were subject to an operating ban because of "an outstanding safety concern notified by [International Civil Aviation Organization] and to the absence of adequate mitigating measures taken by the competent authorities of Eritrea."
Air carriers certified in Mauritania were removed from the EU's banned list because of safety advancements in the country. Jordan Aviation, which was certified in Jordan, has also been taken off the list after an on-site assessment done by the European Commission.
The statement noted that restrictions on Libyan airlines would remain in place as aviation authorities there worked toward meeting international standards. The decision to keep Libyan airlines on the list was backed by the Libyan authorities.

Eritrea withdraws from qualifiers against rival Ethiopia

Eritrea have withdrawn from their African Nations Championship qualifiers against bitter foes Ethiopia, a letter from the Confederation of African football (CAF) showed.
It was not immediately clear if Ethiopia's request for the match to be played on neutral ground after ruling out travelling to Asmara was behind Eritrea's move.
Over the weekend, 18 members of the Red Sea state's national team, including Eritrea's team doctor, disappeared in Uganda while playing in a regional tournament.
The two east African rivals were set to clash in the Eritrean capital around Jan. 14-16 with the return fixture booked for a fortnight later in Addis Ababa.

Red sea boys in Uganda

"We have just been informed by the Eritrean Football Federation that its national team is withdrawing from the ... matches," said a letter from CAF's Competitions Deputy Director Shereen Arafa seen by Reuters.
The letter did not mention Eritrea's reasons for its withdrawal. An Ethiopian FA official confirmed the letter and added that his country was now set to face Rwanda in Addis Ababa on June 21-23 in the next qualification round.
Ethiopia and Eritrea are entangled in a bitter border dispute that saw the countries go to war between 1998-2000, a conflict which cost tens of thousands of lives.
The African Nations Championship, played every two years, is the continent's second biggest tournament in which only domestic-based players can take part.
Ethiopia and Eritrea were last drawn against each other in 1998 in a qualifying round for the 2000 African Nations Cup, just months after fighting broke out along their sun-blasted border.

Missing Eritrean soccer players seek asylum in Uganda

Members of the team

Eritrean soccer players who disappeared from their hotel in Uganda over the weekend have sought asylum in the east African country, a senior Ugandan government official said on Thursday.
Mass defections by Eritrean soccer players are becoming common as the country is one of the world's most secretive states ruled by a reclusive president.
This year United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay accused the Asmara government of meting out summary executions, torture and detaining thousands of political prisoners.
"It's true 17 players and a doctor from Eritrea have come to us claiming that they feel unsafe at home and that they want asylum in Uganda," Musa Ecweru, junior minister for disaster preparedness and refugees, told Reuters.
"So we have told police to stop hunting for them and we have also given them asylum seekers' forms."
The Eritreans had disappeared from their hotel over the weekend after losing 2-0 to Rwanda on Friday during the Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA) competition.
In July last year 13 members of an Eritrean soccer club sought asylum in Tanzania while 12 members of the national squad disappeared in Kenya in 2009 after competing in a regional tournament.
Ecweru said the Eritreans would have to undergo the normal verification process that all asylum seekers are subjected to before their asylum bid is processed.
"They will be interviewed by a committee and they will be subjected to rigorous questioning to determine whether their reasons for fleeing their country are genuine."

U.S. Renews Eritrean Travel Warning

The US government has issued new Eritrean travel advice, cautioning its citizens to be aware of the risks.
In a renewed alert issued on 29 November, the US state department recommended US citizens avoid all types of travel to Eritrea due to security incidents, including attacks near the border with Ethiopia.
The travel advice cautioned all US nationals to avoid visiting the Ethiopia-Eritrean border due to security threats.
The document recalled an incident in January 2012 in which five foreign tourists were killed and others abducted by allegedly Eritrea-backed Ethiopian rebels in the Erta-Ale volcano in the remote Afar region of Ethiopia, a few kilometres from the Eritrean border.

Eritrea and Ethiopia two of the world's poorest countries spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the war.

"The US Department of State continues to warn U.S. citizens of the risks of travel to Eritrea and strongly recommends U.S. citizens defer all travel to the country," states the release.
It also recommends against any travel in Eritrean waters due to the regime's repeated "illegal detention of vessels."
Eritrea generally requires ten days notice before awarding permission for foreign visitors to travel outside the capital, Asmara and "as a result, the U.S. Embassy is extremely limited in its ability to provide emergency consular assistance outside of Asmara".
The US state department added crimes in Asmara are on rise due to worsening economic conditions.
It further alleged that the Eritrean government has arrested a number of Eritrean-US dual citizens and many of them are "currently being held without apparent cause".
The latest Eritrean travel warning replaces the one issued on 18 April, when the US then urged visitors to avoid unnecessary travel to the nation.
It also warned citizens against travel to the Eritrea-Ethiopia border areas as well as the border with Djibouti.
Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a two-year bloody war over their disputed border during 1998-2000, costing the lives of over 70,000 people.
With their border dispute yet unsettled, tensions between the two neighbours remain tense particularly after the Ethiopian Army recently carried out cross-border attack on military camps inside Eritrea; Addis Ababa's first military incursion since the war ended.
South Sudan hopes to mediate in talks between Eritrea and Ethiopia.
"We will embark on rounds of shuttle diplomacy between the two countries. We are hoping to start in November," South Sudan's minister for cabinet affairs, Deng Alor, said in October.

Ethiopia PM willing to talk to Eritrea

PM Hailemariam Desalegn

Hailemariam Desalegn, Ethiopia's prime minister, has said that he is willing to hold talks with neighbouring Eritrea, with whom Addis Ababa fought a border war that ended in 2000.
If Desalgen follows through with Wednesday's statement, it will be the first time a leader in Addis Ababa has held talks with Issaias Afeworki, the Eritrean president, since the end of the conflict which left at least 70,000 people dead.
"If you ask me, 'Do you want to go to Asmara and sit down and negotiate with Isaias Afwerki?' Then, I will say yes'," Hailemariam said in an interview with Al Jazeera to be broadcast on Saturday.
The two countries remain at odds over the flashpoint town of Badme, awarded to Eritrea by a UN-backed boundary commission, but still controlled by Ethiopia.
"The most important thing for us is to fight poverty ... to have regional integration. If we two do that, it will be much more productive," Hailemariam added.
Eritrea won independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after a 30-year struggle, that is considered among the continent's longest and most bitter.
Hailemariam, who took office after longtime ruler Meles Zenawi died in August, said that reaching out to Asmara was following the policy of his predecessor.
"My predecessor Meles Zenawi had asked for more than 50 times even to go to Asmara and negotiate with Mister Isaias Afwerki," he said.
Ethiopia and Eritrea routinely accuse each other of backing armed groups to destabilise the other.
In March, Ethiopia attacked an Eritrean military base after the killing of five European tourists it blamed on Asmara.

Ethopia wants Eritrea matches moved to neutral venue

The Ethiopia Football Association has asked the Confederation of African Football to move its African Nations Championship qualifiers with Eritrea to a neutral venue. 

The request comes as the neighbouring countries continue to dispute borders.
The teams are set to play in the Eritrean capital, Asmara, between 14-16 January, with the return tie in Addis Ababa set for two weeks later.
But Ethiopia said they would not travel to the Red Sea state.

Ethiopian national foot ball team (waliya)

"We want the matches to take place, but we're not willing to travel there and it is obvious their government won't allow their team to visit Addis Ababa," said Ethiopian Football Federation spokesman Melaku Ayele.
"So we've proposed an alternative venue, neighbouring Sudan, for both matches to be held in."
Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a border war between 1998-2000 that killed tens of thousands of troops. A Hague-based independent border commission ruled that the flashpoint town of Badme belonged to Eritrea but the village remains in the hands of Ethiopia and the spat remains unresolved.
Asmara is yet to respond to Ethiopia's request, Melaku said.
The African Nations Championship, played every two years, is the continent's second biggest tournament in which only domestic-based players can take part.
Ethiopia, nicknamed the Walyas, recently sealed a spot at the more glamorous Africa Cup of Nations finals set for January after a three-decade absence.
Ethiopia and Eritrea were last pitched against each other in 1998 in a qualifying round for the 2000 African Nations Cup, just months after fighting broke out along their sun-blasted border.

Eritrean Football Team Vanishes in Uganda

Most of Eritrea's national football team has disappeared in Uganda, raising suspicion the players are seeking to defect.

members of eritrean national football team

Seventeen players and a team physician vanished Sunday in the capital, Kampala, where the team had gone to play in a regional tournament.

Nicola Musonye, secretary-general of the Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations, confirmed the disappearance to VOA's Horn of Africa Service on Monday.

The head of the Eritrean delegation says the 18 went missing from their hotel and that he has reported this to local police.

Radio France International quotes an unidentified player as saying the players and doctor are in hiding while the Eritrean embassy tries to find them.

Human rights groups frequently criticize Eritrea as one of the world's most secretive and repressive societies, and the country's athletes have used international competitions to flee their homeland in the past.

In one example, four Eritreans asked for political asylum in Britain after the summer Olympics this year.

Thirteen Eritrean football players requested asylum in Tanzania after a 2011 tournament, while 12 members of the national team sought asylum in Kenya in 2009.