Posted on 10/04/2013 6:28:20 PM PDT by Pan_Yan
There is no civil war in Eritrea: its people flee because their isolated homeland could pass as an African version of North Korea. Like the Kim regime in Pyongyang, President Isaias Afewerki keeps Eritrea on a permanent war-footing.
Most adults are conscripted into the army or forced to perform compulsory labour of some kind. Today, one Eritrean in every 20 serves in a bloated army with 320,000 soldiers.
Mr Isaias justifies this eternal mass mobilisation by claiming that neighbouring Ethiopia is scheming to re-conquer Eritrea. Just as the fictional state of “Oceania” was always at war in George Orwell’s “1984”, so Mr Isaias presents his repression as essential to guarantee the survival of the nation against outside enemies.
That message has some resonance because of Eritrea’s traumatic history. The country broke away from Ethiopia in 1993 after waging a brutal 30-year struggle for independence. The two neighbours have remained bitter rivals ever since, fighting a border war between 1998 and 2000 that claimed perhaps 70,000 lives.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
A basket case piece of geography.
Obama’s presidency should be known as the ‘the Eritrean Period’
Home of the to Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) and France's 13th Demi-Brigade of the Foreign Legion. Large US supply base and drone base.
WOW! I thought I was up on world geography ... never heard of this place. My bad.
The only reason Eritrea is in the news is because about 500 of them piled in a fishing boat and headed for Italy this week. About 150 made it.
Eritrea is the Muslim portion of Ethiopia, at least they were until independence. This is the front lines of the war between Islam and Christianity. Ethiopia was basically cut off from the rest of Christianity for most of 1000 years and Eritrea has now cut them off from the sea.
They are worth a mention because they are the biggest state sponsors of Al Shabaab in Somalia; the group responsible for the Kenya mall massacre.
I remember back in the early 70's when Ethiopia was in the US sphere and Somalia was in the Soviet sphere. Then one day, they both switched.
weird
Asmara is a pretty name for the capitol of the Republic of Hell Hole
How about Somaliland?
Thank for the information, greatly appreciated.
Back in the 50s, 60s and 70s, the NSA had a major site in Asmara, manned mainly by US Army and US Navy signal intelligence specialists.
Or its neighbor Puntland?
Want to see a weird "country" look up Western Sahara. Half of it is controlled by Morocco, the other half by an Algerian backed group. There is a big dirt mound that separates them running the length of the country. It hasn't had a government for 50 years.
I did not know that.
Yes, it was weird. I remember when all the “intellectuals” I knew supported Eritrea in its breakaway from Ethiopia. One of the earliest examples of the current cheering for Muslims versus Christians.
Sorry I didn’t recognize Eritrea, however my ignorance of the geography of this area doesn’t extend to Somalia ... due to recent (and ongoing) headlines.
I don’t question what you say but I note their president stated in the article story here has the first name Isaias , I was always under the impression, Eritrea was sort of split religiously speaking.
“The registered, census-based religions are the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church (a miaphysite Oriental Orthodox denomination), the Roman Catholic Church, Eritrean Lutheran Church, and Sunnite Islam. All other religions are persecuted, including other denominations of Islam, such as Shi’ism, and other denominations of Christianity, such as any of the myriad Protestant denominations.”
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eritrea
The Eritreans I think in spite of religion, are just ancient foes of the Ethiopians, Eritreans enjoyed being an Italian Colony. Eritreans helped Italy invade Ethiopia. Eritrea also whipped Ethiopia and put in new rulers by defeating them in that war in the ‘90s I believe. Let’s not all forget Ethiopia was a client of the Soviet Union.
See pictures of Italian Military Cemeteries on this webpage: http://www.asmera.nl/eritrea2011/eritrea31052011.htm Interesting how they are kept up immaculately. That website has images of Italian architecture too.
In fact, when Eritrea defeated Ethiopia, the Ethiopians had the old Soviet tanks.
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