After the declaration of Eritrean Independence in 1993 several thousands of youth became victims of the PFDJ executions, imprisonments, etc. Those who survived were forced into labour and conscripted by the army for unlimited periods.
According State Department 2013 Human Trafficking Report on Eritrea, Eritrea is a source country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labour, and to a lesser extent, sex and labour trafficking abroad.
TheAwate Team (2007 states that citizens over the age of 18, in numbers anywhere between 400,000-800,000, have been in a constant state of mobilization since the proclamation of National Service in 1995. Furthermore in 2008,
Meron Estefanos (2008)indicates that there were more than 700,000 young Eritreans conscripted into national service. This practice continues to this day. National service has turned into indefinite slavery and one of the main factors
why thousands of young Eritreans are fleeing the country. By escaping from the PFDJ they are exposed to the risk for kidnapping and disappearance.Since 2001 the younger Eritrean refugees also face forced deportations by the Libyan, Egyptian,
Maltese, Sudanese regimes and recently by the Israel governments. For example in 2002, hundreds of Eritreans who fled the country were forcibly returned by Malta and by Libya in July 2004. According to the AI 2004 report "Those deportees on their
arrival back in Eritrea, were reportedly tortured and sent to a secret prison on the main where most are still detained incommunicado".((2004 AI report).
However this has not stopped young Eritreans from fleeing their country; in fact the number of people who flee has increased. In the winter of 2007, just in one month, 5,000 Eritreans fled to Sudan.
The UN Humanitarian News Agency states that in 2011 between 1,200 and 1,500 were fleeing the country each month and there were 61,000 Eritrean refugees. Berhan Hagos (2011) in his article
Eritrea’s 20th Anniversary Comprehensive Report Card also mentions that Eritrean youth are fleeing the country at an alarming rate.
Over 30,000 youths have fled the country due to endless national service and Warsai Yikealo projects. They have become our tragic stories being sacrificed in
the Sahara Desert, preyed upon by traffickers operating around the Mediterranean Sea.Read more
As a result of long conscription and excessive militarization more than 200,000 Eritrean have left their home country between 1993 and 2012. Many of them are of military age.
Gaim Kibreab (2009) states that Eritrea has become a major refugees producing country. He adds that between 2001 and 2007, 9,995 sought asylum in the UK and in Sweden,
in 2006 and 2007,Eritrean asylum seekers were the fourth largest among fifty nationalities.
Currently there are 35,000 Eritrean asylum seekers living in Israel. By 2013 the number of refugees has reached more than 300,000 Eritrean refugees in neighboring countries, with more than 4000 fleeing every month as a result of sever repression of the PFDJ ruling Party Sheila Keetharuth told reporters in Geneva.
The tragic history of the youth post-independence is not only executions, forced labour, imprisonment etc by the PFDJ but also of several thousand having escaped PFDJ massacres becoming detainees in foreign countries.
Many have been forcibly deported by the Libyan , Egyptian, Maltese and Sudanese regimes, killed by Egyptian border guards or tortured by some Bedouin groups in the Sinai. Regarding this Elsa Chrum
in her article Testimony on the Execution of Mogos Gebreselase (2006) states that the history of Eritrea's youthis a story of humiliation, exile, detention and death [read more].
Despite this dire situation, the leaders of opposition groups still compete for supporters from the younger generation through organizing youth festivals and promoting
their organizations through their websites and social media.
This is briefly highlighted in Table 2 at the end page of this document. It is sad to see the diaspora youth being recruited into such displacement activities by supporters of the PFDJ leaders and the
opposition group leaders as previously their parents had been while there is daily tragic news of the deaths of Eritrean youths within the country and in exile[A crumbling nation and a tragedy]
The State Department 2013 Human Trafficking Report on Eritrea describes the circumstance of the Eritrean youth under the PFDJ regime:
During the reporting period, an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 Eritreans escaped to refugee camps in eastern Sudan each month. Additionally, there were at least 62,000 Eritreans, including 1,000 unaccompanied minors,
in refugee camps inside Ethiopia, and smaller but increasing numbers of Eritrean refugees in Djibouti and Yemen. A significant number of fleeing Eritreans encountered serious risks of being shot and killed by Eritrean,
Egyptian, or Libyan authorities or forcibly repatriated to Eritrea, where they were often detained without charge by the Eritrean government, or recalled into national service. Adolescent children who attempted to leave Eritrea were sometimes detained or forced to undergo military training despite being younger than the minimum service age of 18".
Fessahaye Mebrahtu (2013) states that the Eritrean political condition has occupied the major part of the lives of four generations of Eritreans,
in the processes, such political condition has consumed countless lives creating untold sufferings; putting on regression for human and technical development.
The opposition leaders ( EPDP, ENCDC, EDA, ENSFetc) apart from obsessition about gaining power have never shown any willingness or any commitment to end the suffering of the Eritrean people particularly the younger generation.
Therefore, the youths are not merely victims of the PFDJ but also of the leaders of the opposition groups and their elitist supporters. Despite this fact some Eritrean youth continue to support either the regime or the opposition groups.
Evidence of this can be seen from Table 2 &3. These tables clearly show that the competition of various opposition leaders is fragmenting the youth in the diasporas thereby preventing the formation of a united opposition to the PFDJ.
This is not the first time that Eritrean youths are the victims of conscription, imprisonment, execution, disappearance etc. There is a history going back to the Italian colonization (1890-1941) and also when Eritrea was occupied by Ethiopia from 1961 to 1991.
During the 30 years of Ethiopian occupation the youth particularly became the main victims of the Ethiopian security and armed forces causing many to join the liberation fronts. However, not all were welcome by the fronts leaders.
Many of the more independent minded became victims of the Jebha & Shabia leaders, a legacy continued by the PFDJ after independence
It is really very tragic to see that Eritrea has lost many of its young generation since the declaration of independence. It should be our moral obligation to remember them in the light of 18th September.
There should also be a remembrance day for all youths who have disappeared while fleeing from the current autocratic regime. The 18th September should not be restricted to remembering the
G11 members of the Eritrean Parliament and Journalists,
but should include those innocent fighters who were victims of Jebha and Shabia leaders during the Gedli (Revolution) era(1961-1993).
The main purpose for documenting the tragic story of young Eritreans in this document is to recall their disappearance and highlight the legacy of the Gedli. This also provides an overall picture of the opposition groups’ and of the PFDJ’s
destructive role in dividing the youth and prolonging the misery of the Eritrean people since independence.
An overview on Eritrean youth during the Italian colonisation.
This section provides some brief information specific on the early development of education and conscription of young Eritreans into the colonial army in the 19th century to highlight that there were opportunities for education for the young Eritreans before Eritrea became a colony of Italy in 1890 but this was interrupted after the colonial rule introduced the restrictions for the indigenous people beyond the fourth grade. Looking back to the history of education in Eritrea, from the middle of the 19th century there was a formal education system .The first Islamic school was established by the Ottomans in Toweled in 1870 (Kidane, Eyob 2004) . Then other schools were opened by the Catholic Lazarists in Keren in 1872 [2 ]and Swedish Evangelical Missionaries (SEM)opened a boys school in Gheleb in 1889. By 1900 there were scholars who received their education from Islamic and missionary schools, notably the father of Sheikh Ibrahim Mukhtar who obtained Islamic education, and the father of Issac Twelde Medhin preacher Twelde Medhin, who was a student at Oslo in 1900. (Ghebreab, 2006). The evidence for this is contained in the book of Karl Johan Lundstrom and Ezra Gebremedhina: The Roots and Development of the Evangelical Church of Eritrea, 1866-1935”. This book is extensively illustrated with historic photographs of some students at Johnnelund on page 119 and there is more photo of students from the school of Lundahal in Imkullu in 1883 and 1884 on pages 447-555
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