In the relations between the European Union and Eritrea there has been an unexpected turnaround in recent days. With a detailed list of accusations, the EU Council has formalized new sanctions on the Asmara government and in particular on the National Security Office. This is the control and repression body headed by General Abraha Kassa and which reports directly to President Isaias Afewerki.
“Arbitrary arrests, extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances and torture” denounced the Council. A series of human rights violations that would have occurred within Eritrea itself, not beyond the border, or in Tigray, where Afewerki’s army has been engaged for four months alongside the Ethiopian one to suppress the local uprising. On the violence the EU, the United States and the UN now agree that the Eritrean military have different responsibilities and everything suggests that other measures will soon follow.
For now, the sanctions consist of simple restrictive measures, such as a ban on entering Europe and freezing of funds, according to the latest Council rules on respect for human rights. However, the act is significant both for the new geopolitical order that is taking shape in the Horn of Africa and for investments in the region.
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Spurious accusations, Asmara replies
From Asmara the government has denied any wrongdoing and blamed the EU for a “malevolent” attitude aimed at dividing Eritrea and Ethiopia, as well as wanting to restore the Tigray liberation front to power.
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“The EU has no moral or legal prerogatives for this decision and has attributed crimes to Eritrea for other reasons,” replied the Eritrean foreign minister.
The Afewerki government had freed itself in 2018 of sanctions imposed years ago for the same reasons, after the peace agreement with Ethiopia led by President Abiy Ahmed. That handshake had earned Abiy the Nobel Peace Prize and put an end to a hostility that had lasted over twenty years between the two neighboring countries. The situation for the Eritrean people had not changed however.
Democratic activist groups outside the country and UN officials continued to denounce the regime for terror and violence against the population. Already in 2016, after two years of research, the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry had spoken openly about “crimes against humanity”. It is no coincidence that Eritrea continues to be the homeland of a large number of asylum seekers in neighboring countries and in Europe, those who survive the journey across the desert and the Mediterranean.
Among the violations, the arrests for no reason, the disappearances of dissidents, the atrocious torture of which refugees tell when they arrive on our shores are known. Since 2001, for example, journalists and writers such as Dawit Isaak and Amanuel Asrat have been in prison, whose only fault was to demand freedom of expression. There has been no news of them for years. It is the longest detention of journalists in the world, according to Reporters Without Borders.
Projects funded by the EU
Despite the accusations and convictions, in 2016 Eritrea rejoined the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa. The stated goal of European officials was to offer development opportunities in the country, so as to remove the causes of the flight.
So far the European Union has allocated 151 million 300 thousand euros to nine projects. The largest concerns the construction of the connecting roads between Eritrea, on the Red Sea, and Ethiopia. About 80 million will be spent on the roads from the port of Massawa to the inner cities of Nefasit, Ser’ha and Zelambesa. A $ 30 million project will go to incentivize agriculture, and smaller five or six million projects will be used for investments in fishing, solar energy, education and training.
The new sanctions could only represent the beginning of a new embargo process that would put those projects at risk.
Italian companies
The infrastructures financed by the EU are crucial for the investments of European and also Italian companies. Four of our companies already operate in Eritrea: Enertronica of Frosinone, which has won two orders for photovoltaic systems, the Piccini group of Perugia for construction, Italfish of Teramo in the fishing branch, Sider of Piombino and, for many years now, the Zambaiti group of Bergamo for the textile industry.
At the end of 2018, a group of eighty other Italian entrepreneurs – from the most diverse sectors, from transport to tourism – visited Eritrea to evaluate the possibility of new business. Accompanying them was Deputy Foreign Minister, Emanuela Del Re. “Eritrea is opening up to the world after the peace process, we need to work with Eritreans, aim to develop the market using local resources”, he declared. then Del Re.
Forced labor and new violence
However, in a country that does not allow independent media or trade unions, the “resources” of the workforce are sometimes offered by the government to companies through the so-called national service. It is the infamous unlimited military service that has been going on since 1991 and forces every citizen, man or woman, young or old to work ordered, from services to construction.
For years the United Nations has been demanding that Eritrea abolish this system because it is forced labor, in clear violation of fundamental conventions and human rights. Deputy Minister Del Re commented on this: “Countries have the right to take time to tackle problems. There is a great reflection taking place … We ask, in short, but we are respectful ”.
After three years, however, nothing has changed. The regime’s abuses continued, as did military service, without any commitment to democratic reform.
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