Isaias Afewerki

Isaias Afewerki
President of Eritrea
Incumbent
Assumed office 27 April 1991
Preceded by	Position established
President of the National Assembly
Incumbent
Assumed office 24 May 1993
Preceded by	Tedla Bairu
Chairman of the PFDJ
Incumbent
Assumed office 15 June 1994
Preceded by	Position established
Chairman of the EPLF
In office 4 October 1978 – 15 June 1994
Preceded by	Sebhat Ephrem
Succeeded by	Romodan Mohammed Nur
Personal details
Born	2 February 1946 (1946-02-02) Eritrea
Political party	People's Front for Democracy and Justice
Spouse(s)	Saba Haile
Religion	Eritrean Orthodoxy

Isaias Afewerki (Tigrinya: ኢሳይያስ ኣፈወርቂ) is an Eritrean politician who has been the first President of Eritrea since 1993. He led the Eritrean People's Liberation Front to victory in May 1991, thus ending the 30-year old armed liberation struggle that the Eritrean people refer to as "Gedli". Two years later, he became President following an independence referendum. He is currently the head of the ruling People's Front for Democracy and Justice.

Isaias was born in the Eritrean capital Asmara (then the second largest city in Ethiopia), to a father from the village of Tselot, Hamasien and a mother rumoured to be originally from Enderta, Tigray. He is rumoured from his mother's side to be related to Dejazmach Mirtcha Wolde Kidane, Shum of Tembien - father to Emperor Yohannes IV.

The EPLF was one of many armed groups struggling against the dictator, Mengistu Hailemariam. Afewerki was elected Leader of the EPLF in 1975. He has been the chairperson of both the EPLF and the PFDJ since the PFDJ assumed power at the end of the Eritrean War for Independence and the Ethiopian Civil War in 1991. He has been President of Eritrea ever since the country seceded from Ethiopia in 1991 and then elected by the National Assembly after achieving de-jure independence in 1993.

Personal life

Isaias was born in the Abbashaul district of the Eritrean capital Asmara (then the second largest city in Ethiopia), to a father from the village of Tselot, Hamasien and a mother rumoured to be originally from Enderta, Tigray. When Isaias was a boy, his father Afewerki spent much of his time in Tigray, where he owned a coffee farm that was later nationalized by the Derg. With Afewerki largely absent, Isaias lived with his mother in a working class neighborhood in eastern Asmara near the train depot and the Lutheran church. He graduated in 1965 from the elite Prince Makonnen High School in Asmara. Between 1965 and 1966 he attended Haile Selassie University in Addis Ababa (now known as Addis Ababa University) to study engineering. During this time, he left Addis Ababa to join the Eritrean Liberation Front. After disillusionment with that movement, he and several others formed the Eritrean People's Liberation Front. Eventually Eritrea gained their independence and he became the country's first president.

The president is an adherent of Orthodox Christianity, more specifically the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church. His support for the Orthodox Church has allegedly resulted in Orthodox Christians being overrepresented in influential positions in government. He is married to Saba Haile and has three children (two boys and one girl).

War for Independence

The Eritrean War of Independence (1 September 1961 – 29 May 1991) was a conflict fought between the Ethiopian government and Eritrean separatists, both before and during the Ethiopian Civil War. The war started when Eritrea’s autonomy within Ethiopia, where troops were already stationed, was unilaterally revoked. Isaias Afewerki fought in this war first as part of the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF), and then as a commander within the Eritrean People's Liberation Front.

Eritrean Liberation Front

In late 1966, he abandoned his engineering studies in Addis Ababa and left for Kassala, Sudan, where he joined the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) in exile. However, after entering the Sudan, his sentiments towards the ELF leadership changed. Isaias became highly frustrated by the ELF leadership. Within the front existed many ethnic and religious rivalries. Despite his critical opinions of the ELF leadership, Isaias stayed committed to the group. In early 1967, Isaias and Romadan were selected to study military training course in China. They spent that year and most of next year in China studying political ideologies and gurrelia warfare. Upon his return, he was appointed a political commissioner.

In 1970, ideological and tactical disagreements within the ELF led to three factions leaving the ELF into three separate groups. One faction took refuge in the mountains of Sahel. Another group under Isaias' command, numbering less than a dozen, left for Eritrea's eastern escarpment. While the third group headed off to Aden and returned by boat to Eritrea, landing south of Assab. These three groups would eventually join to become one and went by the name of the Eritrean Liberation Front-People's Liberation Front (ELF-PLF). When they formally merged in 1973, they changed their name to the Eritrean Peoples Liberation Front.

Eritrean People's Liberation Front

After becoming one of the leaders of the EPLF in 1973, Isaias wrote a manifesto called "Our Struggle and its Goals". This manifesto placed strong emphasis on overcoming ethnic and religious differences and on launching revolutionary struggle during the independence war. In 1975, Isaias became chairman of the EPLF military committee. In 1977, under EPLF's first congress, he was elected to be vice secretary-general of the EPLF. By this time there was a political struggle within the fight for independence between the predominately Christian EPLF and the mainly Muslim ELF. One civil war had already been fought between the two fronts between 1972-1974. Fighting began in February 1972 and spread through the lowlands, particularly the Red Sea coast. Eventually this conflict spread further into the highlands until in 1974 calls for the conflict to stop were finally heeded. These calls for peace came from local villagers at a time when the independence movement was close to victory over Ethiopia.

By 1979, another civil war had began. The EPLF under Isaias Afewerki executed an offence against the ELF in a bid to protect the flanks of the Front under tremendous pressure from a resurgent Ethiopia. In 1980, the ELF had entered into secret negotiations with the Soviet Union to end the war. Furthermore, on defence of the Sahel stronghold of the EPLF, ELF units withdrew from the lines in August of the same year. This created tremendous friction between the fronts which eventually led to the resumption of conflict. By this point the ELF had been drained during the Ethiopian resurgence after Soviet assistance was leveraged, and were eventually defeated by a joint force of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) led by current Ethiopian president, Meles Zenawi in 1981. The ELF were pushed across the border into the Sudan. That mutually beneficial alliance eventually brought the forces of both movements into Addis Ababa and Asmara toppling the Derg regime in 1991 and achieving Eritrean independence by referendum two years later.

After Independence

See also: Politics of Eritrea

Eritrean independence was achieved de facto in 1991. In April 1993, a United Nations-supervised referendum on independence was held, and the following month Eritrea achieved de jure independence. Isaias Afewerki was declared the first head of state. During the first years of his administration in this new state government, the institutions of governance were structured and put in place. This included a top to bottom restructuring of the structures of governance by provision of an elected local judicial system to expanding the educational system to as many regions as possible.^{[citation needed]} The EPLF renamed itself the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ) on February 1994 as part of its preparation to usher itself as a political party^{[citation needed]} in a democratic Eritrea.

However, his once-firm friendship with the new Ethiopian government and Meles Zenawi quickly deteriorated just seven years after independence into a fierce border and economic dispute that turned into a long and bloody border war with Ethiopia, 1998 - 2000. Armed conflict with Ethiopia claimed more than 70,000 lives from both sides and ended with the signing of the Algiers Agreement on December 12, 2000. Because of this, the drafted Eritrean Constitution and its implementation were put on hold. It is yet to be implemented.

Domestic policy

Isaias Afewerki and his government, The People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ) is the current ruling political movement in Eritrea. It is the successor to the formerly Marxist-Leninist and African socialist Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF). Currently it is the only legal political entity existing in Eritrea. Presidential elections, planned for 1997, never materialised. Isaias Afewerki has therefore been criticised for failing to implement democratic reforms. His government has clamped down on its critics and has closed the private press.

Single-party state

Before independence was achieved,the EPLF had already underlined its commitment to create a multi-party system in Eritrea. Isaias Afewerki is quoted as saying that: "a one-party system wills neither enhances national security or stability nor accelerates economic development. In fact a one party system could be a major threat to the very existence of our country. For these reasons we will have to avoid these malaises in tomorrow's Eritrea". Shortly after the referendum, the PFDJ became an interim government for four years, until a constitution could be drafted, and elections held in 1997. This interim arrangement was accepted by the public. A year after the formation of the interim government in April 1994, a Constitutional Commission was formed to draft the Eritrean constitution. It was ratified on May 23, 1997 but to this day has not been implemented. The general election, which should have been held in the summer of 1998, was postponed because of the outbreak of war between Ethiopia and Eritrea in May 1998.

Following the Algiers Agreement in July 2000, the Constitutional Commission, senior government officials and the public raised the issue of the implementation of the constitution and election. Thereafter the National Assembly promised to hold elections before the end of 2001. Mahmoud Ahmed Sherifo, the Vice President of Eritrea and Minister of Local Government, was appointed Chair of the Committee to Draft Electoral Law. The elections never occurred. Instead public attention was diverted from focusing on any election by the arrest of 12 senior reformist members of the Central Council (legislative body of PFDJ) and the National Council. The Central Office of the PFDJ believes that they share, "...a common guilt: at the minimum, abdication of responsibility during Eritrea's difficult hours, at the maximum, grave conspiracy."

The Eritrean National Assembly neither protested when Mr Mahmoud Sherifo, who was Chair of the Committee to Draft Electoral Laws was dismissed by the President on 7th February nor did it condemn the illegal arrest of their Parliamentary colleagues on 18th September 2001. Since the crackdown on the reformist movement, the PFDJ ruling party has not hesitated to suppress the protests of Eritrean people against the ruling elite depriving them of fundamental rights. To this day, Eritrea still remains a single-party state, with virtually no opposition.

National Development

Isaias Afewerki and the PFDJ government is involved in a program of investments in economic, education, health, and transportation related infrastructure. The Government’s development policy is to improve the economy of the country that is widely distributed and shared among the various groups of Eritrea. The Government has attempted to expand the well-being of the people by narrowing down gender, region, and income related gaps. The Government, with its limited resource, has so far successfully built various social and physical infrastructure throughout the country. These include Massawa International Airport, Orotta Medical School, the Asmara-Filfil-Massawa Highway, the Eritrean Institute of Science and Technology at Mai Nefhi, Sawa Defence Training Centre, and many other projects.

The National Development program was first known as the Wefri Warsay Yika'alo (WWY) or Warsay Yika'alo Program. It is an ambitious project of post-war recovery after the 30 year long Eritrean War for Independence. It is similar to other economic recovery programs, and is often compared to the Marshall Plan. These investments are typically made by a mixture of grants and loans from international organizations and from the Government of Eritrea.

Many have benefited from the government's National Development program. The major beneficiaries are children, women, and people in remote rural areas. In terms of age, 90% of children receive the necessary vaccination at present and maternal mortality rates have reduced from 1,000 per 100,000 during independence to 486 per 100,000 today. The gap of health service provision has narrowed around the country and that Eritrea has been recognized internationally for successes achieved in meeting the Millennium Development Goals. Newly built hospitals and health-clinics has caused the number of pregnant mothers getting the necessary pre-natal medical check up to increase from 19% to 89%. The number of pregnant mothers giving birth by health professionals has also increased from 6% to 34%. Over the past 20 years more than 27,000 youths have graduated from vocational and technical schools with certificate and diploma in which 40% of the graduates are female and female participation in vocational education has increased by 50%.

Region system

At the time of Independence in 1993 Eritrea was arranged into ten provinces: Akele Guzay, Asmara, Barka, Denkalia, Gash-Setit, Hamasien, Sahel, Semhar, Senhit and Seraye. These provinces were similar to the eight provinces operating during the colonial period (Barka and Gash-Setit were one larger Barka province; Asmara was part of Hamasien province). In 1996, these were consolidated into six regions (zobas): Maekel Region, Debub Region, Gash-Barka Region, Anseba Region, Northern Red Sea Region and Southern Red Sea Region. The boundaries of these new regions are based on catchment basins. Critics of this policy contend that the Government of Eritrea was erasing the historical fabric of Eritrea while proponents believe that these new Regional boundaries would ease historical land disputes. Furthermore proponents of this policy argue that basing boundaries on an important natural resource would ease the planning of its use.

The region system introduced by Isaias Afewerki has allowed a broader geographic distribution of the national infrastructure. Many accomplishments have taken place across the six administrative regions. Areas which were virtually neglected by previous governments like the modern-day Anseba and Gash Barka regions. The Anseba region has seen major increases of up to 672% for the number of educational institutions ranging from kindergarten to secondary level. In these regions the number of health institutions has also increased by 414%. The Gash Barka region has seen the construction of over 150 water reservoirs and catchments and more than 118 ponds. Other remote areas originally deprived of such opportunity have had schools and health clinics built in their respective vicinities.

Official language

Eritrea does not currently have an official language. Tigrinya and Arabic are the most widely used. English, Italian and Amharic are understood by a considerable amount of the population and also are spoken especially by residents of the capital, Asmara. Eritrea consists of nine mother tongues (languages). According to their demographic ratio, in a descending order, they could be presented as: Tigrinya (55%), Tigre (30%), Saho (4%), Kunama (2%), Rashaida (2%), Bilen (2%), Afar (2%), Hedareb (2%) and Nara (1%). Under the British administration, Tigrinya and Arabic were the official languages (Tigrinya among the Christians and Arabic among the Muslims).

The debate of what the official language of Eritrea should be has existed since the 1940s. The Unionists insisted in Tigrinya as the only official language of Eritrea. The Moslem League however insisted on Arabic and Tigrinya. The Unionists opposed Arabic because they considered it as a foreign language and came with a suggestion of Tigrinya and Tigre instead. At the end, however, as the UN drafted Constitution prescribed, Tigrinya and Arabic were taken as official languages of the autonomous Eritrean state. The adoption of the Eritrean Government of Tigrinya and Arabic as official languages in 1952, thus undermined Tigre.

After independence, the PFDJ did not announce an official language for the country. Alternatively the PFDJ adopted a language policy that promoted development of all languages. Although its emphasis was on developing all local languages, Tigrinya and Tigre seem to be the languages that this policy has put the most emphasis on. This two languages represent the two largest ethnic groups in the country. Although Tigrinya and Arabic are not the official languages, in practicality, all official documents are written in Tigrinya, and usually also contain Arabic and English.

Freedom of religion

Religion in Eritrea is very diverse. 58% are adherents of the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, 37% are adherents of Sunni Islam, 5% are adherents of Roman Catholicism, 1% are Protestants and 1% are adherents of other Christian denominations or other religions. Since May 2002, the government has only authorised four religions to exist in Eritrea: Eritrean Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Lutheran and Sunni Islam. All other churches are banned with at least 12 groups awaiting official registration. Although some groups reportedly complied with all registration requirements, the Department of Religious Affairs refused to give a date for official recognition. This includes several protestant and Pentecostal evangelical denominations, Seventh Day Adventists, and the Baha’i. The Jehovah Witnesses were not offered the opportunity to register. In October 1994, President Issayas Afwerki issued a directive, which effectively denied all members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses their basic civil, political, economic and social rights. In March 1995, the Minister of Internal Affairs confirmed and reiterated the ban: “The Jehovah’s Witnesses lost their right to citizenship because they refused to accept the Government of Eritrea and the laws.” He accused them of not fighting in the liberation struggle, refusing to vote in the independence referendum and refusing to do national service.

Human rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have documented serious violations of the right to freedom of religion. They report disruption of private worship, mass arrests of participants at religious weddings, prayer meetings, and other gatherings. Amnesty reports that over 1,750 members of unregistered churches and suspect Muslims have been detained, typically without charges and for an indefinite period of time. This figure includes women and children.

Inder Afewerki's religion policy, several cases of police forcing people of unregistered religious groups to abandon their faith and return to the Orthodox Church. Leaders of the four principal religions meet routinely, enjoy excellent interfaith relations, and engage in efforts to foster cooperation and understanding among their followers. Few religious leaders in the country have taken a strong public stance in defense of freedom of conscience for all faiths. When an Orthodox Patriarch, Abune Antonios did speak out against the government's policy of freedom of religion in 2007, he was forcefully deposed, and currently remains under house arrest. The removal of Abune Antonios at the behest of the Eritrean government was denounced by the other Oriental Orthodox Churches who have refused to recognize Abune Dioskoros as the legitimate Patriarch of Eritrea.

Self-reliance

Isaias Afewerki vows not to lead another "spoon-fed" African country. Instead he promotes the policy of self-reliance. Under this policy, Eritrea walked away from more than $200 million in aid in 2007 alone, including food from the United Nations, development loans from the World Bank and grants from international charities to build roads and deliver healthcare. The self-reliance program began a decade ago but accelerated sharply in 2005. Relying on its meager budget and the conscription of about 800,000 of the country's citizens, the program so far has shown promising results. Measured on a variety of U.N. health indicators, including life expectancy, immunizations and malaria prevention, Eritrea scores as high, and often higher, than its neighbors, including Ethiopia and Kenya.

According to the U.S. Department of State, Office of Foreign Assistance, Eritrea is the only African nation that has not requested US aid for the fiscal year of 2011. In keeping with its self-reliance policy, the government of Eritrea stopped requesting any financial assistance from the United States since 2005, and fully cut-off all third party NGOs that were financially sponsored by the United States after 2006. The Eritrean government believes that foreign assistance breeds a culture of dependency that shackles African countries into a cycle of poverty. Moreover, a growing number of economic experts are now taking the same position as Eritrea’s government by suggesting aid to Africa is doing more harm than good. Economist such as Dambisa Moyo argues aid to Africa is making African countries poorer. Moyo, who has a Doctorate in Economics from Oxford University, and a Masters from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, believes foreign aid is “easy money that fosters corruption and distorts economies, creating a culture of dependency and economic laziness.”

G-15

G-15 is a name given to a group in Eritrea that opposes the policy of President Isaias Afewerki postponing elections and their failure in implementing the constitution. The membership of this group consists of former members of the President's ruling People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ) which has ruled the country since its independence in 1993. In May 2001 the group issued an open letter raising criticism against Isayas Afeworki's actions calling them "illegal and unconstitutional." Of the 15 members of the group, 11 are imprisoned, three are now living in the United States and one left the group and rejoined the government. Of the 15 members of the group, 11 are imprisoned, three are now living in the United States and the last remaining one, Muhammad Berhan Belata, had left the group and rejoined the government. The 11 members who are imprisoned are thought to be charged with treason. The Central Office of the PFDJ believes that they share, "...a common guilt: at the minimum, abdication of responsibility during Eritrea's difficult hours, at the maximum, grave conspiracy." Amnesty International named the imprisoned 11 prisoners of conscience and called for their immediate release.

Foreign policies

Ethiopia

The EPLF led by Isaias Afewerki and the TPLF led by Meles Zenawi were close allies during the Eritrean War for Independence and the Ethiopian Civil War. The TPLF had been from its modest beginnings in the early 1970s, had been a protégé and close ally of the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) and in 1988 a secret agreement between the two had decided that, once the Derg regime led by Mengistu Haile Mariam had been overthrown, the TPLF would assume power in Addis Ababa and accept a referendum on independence in Eritrea. The EPLF therefore marched and fought their way with the TPLF to Addis Ababa to overthrow the Derg. At the same time, the TPLF assisted the EPLF against the large Derg army stationed in Eritrean territory. In 1991 the Derg were defeated and the TPLF now called the EPRDF was running Ethiopia. The agreement was renewed after the broadening of the TPLF into the multi-ethnic EPRDF coalition in 1989 and in 1991 it was perfectly adhered to. The referendum was held in Eritrea in 1993 and the new Ethiopian regime immediately recognized the independence of its former province.

Good commercial, diplomatic and personal relations were maintained between the two parties after independence. In July 1993, a cooperation agreement was signed between Isaias Afewerki and Meles Zenawi. The two countries agreed to utilize their resources jointly, cooperate in the energy, education, transport, defense and security sectors, and allow the free movement of people. Ethiopia became Eritrea's main trading partner. Isaias Afewerki allowed Ethiopia to use the port of Assab almost to the same extent that Eritrea used it. Ethiopian forces of the Tigray Region were believed to have operated in collaboration with Eritrean forces to invade the Afar region on the border between the two states. The objective of the operation was reportedly to push the Afar people and Ugugumo militia towards the desert area beyond the demarcation line defining the regions. Joint armed conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia against the ARDUF rebels continued into 1996. ARDUF claimed that armed clashes had taken place between Ethiopian security forces, the Eritrean Militia against Afar militias and civilians in the border zone. The Eritrean and Tigrean forces invaded the Afar regions of both countries in 1996.

Isaias Afewerki and Meles Zenawi's government on political and military coordination on regional issues was close and actually amounted to an alliance. When the Sudanese government based in Khartoum began to use the ethnic and religious problems in both Eritrea and Ethiopia to subvert the new governments, they both reacted in coordinated fashion to counter this threat. They gave political support to the Sudanese National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the umbrella organization of Sudanese opposition movements, and military help to the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) fighting in the South. Further afield both Addis Ababa and Asmara supported Laurent-Désiré Kabila’s uprising in the Congo in September 1996.

Incidents started to occur between Eritrea and Ethiopia on the 6 May 1998 in the Badme border area in Eritrea's Gash-Barka Region and Ethiopia's Tigray Region. A bilateral Ethio-Eritrean comission had been set up in November 1997 after tensions rose between the two nations. They met regularly either in Asmara or in Addis Ababa. Therefore the incidents were not taken particularly seriously at first. But while bilateral contacts were resumed, Eritrea massed large amounts of troops, with their accompanying weaponry, and invaded the Badme area on 12 May. The first outside mediation effort started on 17 May when Rwanda’s Vice-President Paul Kagame came to Addis Ababa, soon followed by US Under-Secretary of State for African Affairs Susan Rice. Their mediation efforts were not welcomed by either side, but there was a lull in the fighting. The war quickly resumed and tens of thousands of people were killed in a two year border war known as the Eritrean-Ethiopian War. The war ended after a ceasefire. Most of the disputed territory was awarded to Eritrea in the end of the war.

On April 2002 The Commission released its decision (with a clarification in 2003). Disagreements following the war have resulted in stalemate punctuated by periods of elevated tension and renewed threats of war. Since these decisions Ethiopia has refused to permit the physical demarcation of the border while Eritrea insists the border must be demarcated as defined by the Commission. Consequently, the Boundary Commission ruled boundary as virtually demarcated and effective. Eritrea maintains a military force on its border with Ethiopia roughly equal in size to Ethiopia's force, which has required a general mobilization of a significant portion of the population. Eritrea has viewed this border dispute as an existential threat to itself in particular and the African Union in general, because it deals with the supremacy of colonial boundaries in Africa. Since the border conflict Ethiopia no longer uses Eritrean ports for its trade. During the border conflict and since, Ethiopia has fostered militants against Eritrea (including ethnic separatists and religiously based organizations). Eritrea has retaliated by hosting militant groups against Ethiopia as well. The United Nations Security Council argues that Eritrea and Ethiopia have expanded their dispute to a second theater, Somalia.

Sudan

For reasons of geopolitical antagonism during all of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s the governments of Ethiopia and the Sudan supported each other's guerrillas opponents, making the Horn of Africa one of the major fields of confrontation in the Cold War. The situation did not change when an Islamist regime took power in Khartoum through a military coup in June 1989. So the EPLF struggle, although it was the struggle of a Christian-dominated movement, was strongly supported by the new Sudanese regime simply for geopolitical reasons. As a result in 1991 the relations between Khartoum and the newly independent regime led by Isaias Afewerki were excellent and the Sudanese were very present at the Eritrean independence celebrations in Asmara in April 1993. But the relationship soon deteriorated. After Eritrean independence, the Sudanese regime started recruiting disenchanted Muslim youths in the refugee camps and incorporated them into an organization called the Eritrean Islamic Jihad. By early 1994 there were constant infiltrations into Eritrea and border skirmishes. After a major attack in December 1993, the Eritrean Government chose to go public with it and lodge a formal protest to Khartoum. Isaias Afewerki then decided to decided to break diplomatic relations with Sudan and to support the Sudanese opposition in its attempts at overthrowing the fundamentalist regime. The Ethiopian government also backed Isaias Afewerki against the Sudanese government.

Relations between the Isaias Afewerki led government and the Omar al-Bashir led government continued to plummet until more recently. Eritrea had a significant role in promoting peace between the Sudanese government and various Sudanese rebels. United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon applauded Isaias Afewerki's “contribution to peace and stability in Sudan.” He said that Eritrea is an important regional actor and its role for peace in Sudan has been significant. He mentioned Eritrea’s facilitation of the East Sudan Peace Agreement and Eritrea’s role in the Darfur peace process.

Notes

1. Encyclopædia Britannica - Eritrea

External links

• Official website of the Ministry of Information of Eritrea
• Official website of the Ministry of Education of Eritrea
• Isaias Afewerki's Biography With Rare Photos of His early Childhood
• New Internationalist feature on Isaias Afewerki
• Afewerki is a longtime fixture on Parade Magazine's annual list "The World's Worst Dictators"

Political offices
New office	President of Eritrea 1993–present	Incumbent