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It is the fear of serving indefinitely in the national service that has strengthened Teclit Kesete's willingness to leave Eritrea. As a journalism student, he also realized that he would not be able to pursue a successful career in the most censored nation in the world. And if all went well, it was the fear of arbitrary arrest and detention like that of his friends and family haunting him the most.
In March 2012, at age 21, Teclit made the decision to start the long and treacherous march in Ethiopia, risking not only being arrested, but being shot on sight for daring to flee.
Eritrea is a small country with nearly six million people who gained independence a quarter of a century ago. A protracted conflict with Ethiopia, a chronic drought, a mandatory program of military conscription badimilated to slavery, and its authoritarian policy as a one-party state made it one of the most some of the most secretive and isolated nations in the world. To avoid these harsh conditions, young people – more than 486,000 of them in 2017, according to the United Nations – are leaving in droves, throwing the smugglers glove and dangerous waters across the Sahara and the Mediterranean to Europe.
A camp in Ethiopia, Teclit left for Sudan, then Egypt, and continued trekking through the Sinai desert. Many Eritreans with whom he traveled died of exhaustion, others for lack of food and water. With a little luck, Teclit says that he continued until he reached Israel. evening on the phone from Tel Aviv. "I have always cried while going to Israel."
For decades, the ruling party of the Popular Front for Democracy and Justice in Eritrea has justified its internal repressive policy by designating its southern neighbor, Ethiopia. The two nations split amicably in 1993, but a bitter rivalry over regional domination helped to catalyze a brutal conflict over the town of Badme in 1998, killing more than 70,000 people. After the city was granted to Eritrea by a UN commission, Addis Ababa refused to accept, leading to increasing militarization and years of non-war and war. peace.
Enter Abiy Ahmed, young Ethiopian prime minister. Two months after taking office, the 41-year-old reformist announced that he would surrender the disputed city to Eritrea, putting an end to the costly enmity of both nations. In turn, President Isaias Afwerki, who once said "an angel or someone like Christ" could only reconcile, welcomed Abiy to Asmara in a summit that was defined by warm hugs and hugs. laughter
For many Eritreans who were watching Afwerki, the mustachioed fighter-turned-72-year-old man seemed out of his character. He called Abiy " our leader " and granted him all "power" before an enthusiastic mob. The new friendliness between the enemies was followed by the resumption of trade and flights and the reunification of families – a process that aroused the admiration of world leaders and regional states.
But while Abiy radically reshaped the internal and external affairs of Ethiopia, many Eritreans remain skeptical as to whether Afwerki was engaged as much. In interviews with Quartz, exiled Eritreans said that it would take more than just dinners and state concerts to relieve their conscience or encourage them to return home.
"Nothing has changed in Eritrea," says Teclit. "I can not go back now."
An Improbable Nation
Straddling the waters of the Red Sea, the history of Eritrea is a challenge and a remarkably resilient people at all that fate has hurled him. Perhaps nothing illustrates this story more than the Sandal Monument of Asmara, erected to celebrate the self-sufficiency of the nation and its continued resistance against larger powers.From the Italian fascism and British colonialism, Eritrea has remained a nation that strikes above its weight. In recent years, in addition to resistance to Ethiopia, a country 17 times more populous, tensions have erupted between Djibouti and Sudan, while accusing Asmara of supporting Islamist rebels in Somalia.
But if Afwerki has clashed with neighboring countries, this has a cost to the young people of Eritrea. Desperate by the paroxysm of Kafkaesque brutality and uncertainty, many voted with their sandals too.
"I lived in a stifled atmosphere, full of fear and uncertainty," Abraham T. Zere, 36, executive director of the PEN Eritrea literary organization in exile, said in an e- United States mail. Instead of staying in a senfelal -limbo state in Tigrinya – in the middle of an "open and giant prison", he says that he chose to leave. To recall Asmara's Art Deco cinema palaces and its streamlined apartments, Abraham is now paying close attention to all video footage broadcast outside the country.
Trouble has also followed many others outside of Eritrea. Even though he currently has a work visa that he renews every two months, Teclit spent 19 months in Saharonim Prison for African asylum seekers in the Negev Desert. Eritreans and Sudanese migrants have been abused in Israel, with officials calling them "infiltrators". After giving numerous ultimatums for their departure or incarceration, the Israeli authorities seize the announcement that Eritrea could put an end to its conscription program.
Cautious optimism
Semhar Ghebreslbadie, 31, was posted to the national service as a teacher. Far from her family and frustrated with her job, she left Eritrea and reached Sudan in December 2014. After a smuggler set her a visa, she arrived in France and left for the Sweden, where she found her three brothers and sisters.
Seeing the recent news between Eritrea and Ethiopia unfold, Semhar says that diplomatic bonhomie favors only Ethiopia and Afwerki. "There was no appropriate apology to the Eritrean people, there was no platform for peace," she said on the phone from Stockholm. Was done to prepare peace in Eritrea. So it was blasphemous for the Eritrean people. "
Teclit hopes that the rapprochement with Ethiopia will help open up his country. Nowadays, he often thinks of his mother living alone in the city of Senafe in the south, her five exiled children. "I love my country, the only problem is the government," he said. "But now we have hope."
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