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The Eritrean government has blocked Al Jazeera channel in the country, Al Sharq reported yesterday. The ban comes in the wake of reports that were aired by the Doha-based news network about dissident soldiers that seized the Eritrean information ministry in January.
In solidarity with the soldiers, Eritreans staged protests in front of their embassies in Cairo, Rome, London as well as the headquarters of the African Union in Addis Ababa.
“This (ban) is a reaction to coverage of protests against the Eritrean government that were carried out in different parts of the world,” according to the Arabic daily.
The Eritrean information ministry blocked all Al Jazeera channels and issued a decree that prevents anyone in the country from giving access to the news channel to the...
Saturday, February 02, 2013
Friday, February 01, 2013
Eritrean President Receives Written Message from Qatari Premier
Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki received a written message from the Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Shaikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr Al Thani pertaining to bilateral relations.The letter was handed over by the Qatari Ambassador to Eritrea Mohammed bin Isa Al-Mannai to the Political Advisor to the Eritrean President Yemane Ghebre...
Reverse the exodus from Eritrea
By Dan Connell
LAST WEEK, soldiers in one of Africa’s most closed and repressive nations — Eritrea — occupied the country’s Ministry of Information and issued demands. The pattern was a familiar one. News spread quickly that a coup was underway.
But feisty little Eritrea, which got its independence from Ethiopia in 1991 after defeating successive US- and Soviet-backed armies in a 30-year war, has never fit the mold of postcolonial African states, and it was not doing so now.
In a country where chatting about politics at open-air cafés can get you arrested, this was the only way people with a grievance could get attention and survive: in a large group with guns. Their point was to start a national conversation where none was allowed. And they did.
The government at first admitted an...