Eritrea under Isaias Afwerki

Background and rise to power

The EPLF fought the Ethiopian government for independence for three decades and entered Asmara on 24 May 1991. It formed the Provisional Government of Eritrea, headed by Isaias Afwerki as its secretary general, and ran it until independence. A referendum on 23 to 25 April 1993, verified by the UN Observer Mission (UNOVER), recorded about 99.8 per cent for independence on a turnout reported at 98.2 per cent; independence was declared on 24 May 1993, the National Assembly elected Isaias president, and Eritrea joined the UN on 28 May. At its third congress at Nakfa on 10 to 16 February 1994 the EPLF renamed itself the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ) and elected Isaias secretary general.

A constitutional commission appointed by the president drafted a constitution, which a constituent assembly ratified on 23 May 1997. It has never been put into effect. The UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) noted in 2016 that, besides the 1993 referendum and the election of 75 members of a constituent assembly, no national elections had taken place and no presidential election had ever been held, and quoted Isaias telling Al Jazeera in 2008 that "Eritrea will wait three or four decades, maybe more, before it holds elections. Who knows?" The Eritrean delegation to the 2014 Universal Periodic Review said national elections would not be held until "the threats to national security and sovereignty had been eliminated."

Scholars describe this period differently. Dan Connell, whose Against All Odds (1993) presented the EPLF's years of struggle as a social revolution that built a self-reliant movement across religious and ethnic lines, was expelled from Eritrea in 2002 and later wrote a critique of its post-liberation politics (Enough!) and interviews with the imprisoned critics (Conversations with Eritrean Political Prisoners). Gaim Kibreab (Eritrea: A Dream Deferred, 2009) and Bereket Habte Selassie (Wounded Nation, 2010) wrote other book-length accounts of the post-independence period, and Kjetil Tronvoll and Daniel Mekonnen (The African Garrison State, 2014) describe the path from liberation movement to militarised state. The government's own account is that a state emerging from a long war and facing a hostile neighbour had to prioritise defence, a position set out below.

How power was organized

The PFDJ is the only legal party; no other party has been licensed and Human Rights Watch reports that gatherings of more than seven people are prohibited. Isaias is head of state and has led the party since 1994. Martin Plaut (Understanding Eritrea, 2016) describes the rule as "arbitrary and personal", with the constitution written but not implemented, no elections and "no annual budget", while Alex de Waal (The Real Politics of the Horn of Africa, 2015) describes Isaias as running "a very tight political business model" that keeps the sources of finance away from the army. Tronvoll and Mekonnen call the result a "garrison state". Freedom House scored Eritrea 3 out of 100 and "Not Free" in Freedom in the World 2025.

National service is the central institution. Proclamation No. 82 of 1995 required Eritreans of 18 to 40 to serve 18 months, six of military training and twelve of active service or development work. In 2002 the Warsay-Yikealo Development Campaign (WYDC) deployed conscripts in civil ministries, state-owned enterprises and the army, and the COI found that service was in practice extended indefinitely from about that year. Training takes place at the Sawa camp. The government's position is that service is limited by law to 18 months and has been prolonged because of Ethiopia. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on 19 June 2015 that "by law national service is only required for eighteen months" but that, because of Ethiopia's refusal to abide by the boundary ruling, the government "had been left with no other choice but to rely on its population to defend its independence and sovereignty." The Ministry of Information said in December 2015: "In normal times, the National Service is limited to 18 months by law… This normative configuration is affected today due to Ethiopia's continued occupation of sovereign Eritrean territories." Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel said in February 2016 that "demobilization is predicated on removal of the main threat." The COI concluded that "despite the justifications for a military/national service programme advanced in 1995, the military/national service programmes today serve primarily to boost the economic development of the nation, profit state-endorsed enterprises, and maintain control over the Eritrean population in a manner inconsistent with international law." Kibreab (The Eritrean National Service) argues that open-ended service drives emigration. Michael Woldemariam analyses the Eritrea-Ethiopia "no war, no peace" rivalry through the strategic calculations of both governments, which is a different frame from the COI's. This page did not find a scholarly source that endorses the government's account of national service in full, and it says so rather than imply a balance the sources do not show.

The war with Ethiopia (May 1998 to June 2000 fighting; Algiers Agreement of 12 December 2000) opened the first crisis within the leadership. In May 2001 fifteen senior PFDJ officials, later called the G-15, signed an open letter urging the president to implement the constitution and hold elections. On 18 September 2001 security forces arrested eleven of them (the other four were abroad or, in one case, retracted) and the government banned all privately owned media. Amnesty International records that journalists were arrested on 21 to 23 September and names ten, among them Dawit Isaak and Amanuel Asrat; Reporters Without Borders counted eleven in 2016, and the Committee to Protect Journalists reported at least ten detained in the days after 18 September 2001. The government said in a statement quoted by the COI that the eleven officials "were detained for conspiring and attempting to overthrow the legal government of the country in times of war and for colluding with hostile foreign powers", adding that "not a single Eritrean has been detained in the past twenty four years since independence for expressing his/her opinion." The COI observed that the government cited the law on treason but mentioned no trial or conviction. No member of the group has been charged or tried; Amnesty reported in 2021 that nine of the 21 had reportedly died in custody, which the authorities have not confirmed.

The propaganda apparatus

Offices. The Ministry of Information owns, operates and supervises all state media; there is no independent regulator, and the Minister of Information appoints senior editors (State Media Monitor). Yemane Gebremeskel, who was Director of the President's Office before his appointment on 11 March 2015, is the minister as of 2 October 2026 and the government's usual spokesman; his predecessor Ali Abdu Ahmed left the post in November 2012 (Plaut), and Awate reports it was then vacant until 2015.

Channels. The Ministry runs Eri-TV, the radio service Dimtsi Hafash ("Voice of the Broad Masses"), the newspapers Haddas Eritrea (Tigrinya), Eritrea Alhadisa (Arabic) and Eritrea Profile (English), and the website Shabait.com, which publishes Isaias's interviews with Eri-TV and Dimtsi Hafash, ministry statements and replies to outside reports. No independent domestic outlet has operated since 18 September 2001. Reporters Without Borders ranked Eritrea 180th of 180 countries in its 2025 index (score 11.32) and again in 2026 (score 10.24), and said in 2016 that it had held that last place for eight years running. The COI called the increase in foreign journalists granted access to Eritrea during its reporting period "a positive development." The state telecommunications operator EriTel is described as the sole operator of landline and mobile networks, controlling the internet gateway, and one market analyst (BuddeComm) puts household internet access at about 2 per cent.

Messaging. Public messaging draws on the liberation war and on external threat. Slogans and flags are painted in public places, for example a panel in Asmara reading "Welcome to free Eritrea" (the 2017 Asmara sign) and a mural reading "Education for the benefit of the mass" (the Asmara mural); the archive records who painted them as not identified. The Ministry's account of national service, quoted above, is a threat appeal, which the archive tags as fear appeal without ruling on whether the threat is accurate; the glittering generalities are the slogans, and card stacking is the absence of other domestic voices. A Ministry of Information statement is the government's usual reply to outside findings; the COI's 2016 report cites a Shabait.com article headed "Commission of Inquiry Report: Devoid of credibility and substance", and Al Jazeera reported that Yemane Gebremeskel rejected the 2016 findings on Twitter.

Outside findings. The COI report (A/HRC/32/CRP.1, 8 June 2016) found "reasonable grounds to believe" that Eritrean officials had committed enslavement (in a "persistent, widespread and systematic manner since no later than 2002"), imprisonment, enforced disappearance, torture, other inhumane acts, persecution, rape and murder as crimes against humanity, within what it called a "widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population of Eritrea since May 1991"; Al Jazeera, reporting the findings, gave the figure of 300,000 to 400,000 people "enslaved" through conscription. Special Rapporteur Mohamed Abdelsalam Babiker, described by Plaut as the outgoing rapporteur, reports each year to the Human Rights Council, which on 6 July 2026 voted 23 to 6 with 17 abstentions to renew the mandate; Eritrea's ambassador said before the vote that if it passed Eritrea would stop engaging with the Council on the mandate. Human Rights Watch's World Report 2026 describes indefinite national service, the G-15 and ten journalists as still missing, and Eritrean forces still holding parts of Tigray. Plaut reports that Eritrea has refused for 14 years to cooperate with successive Special Rapporteurs.

Press detainees and exile media. Dawit Isaak, a Swedish-Eritrean journalist and co-owner of Setit, was arrested on 23 September 2001. In a 2009 interview on Sweden's TV4 Isaias said "we don't release. We don't take to trial. We have our own ways to deal with him and others like him" (quoted by the COI). The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention called his detention arbitrary in 2023 (RSF). Radio Erena ("Our Eritrea"), a Tigrinya-language station set up in Paris in 2009 by Eritrean journalists with the support of Reporters Without Borders and founded by Biniam Simon, formerly of Eri-TV, broadcasts by satellite and reports intermittent jamming; for jamming as a wider practice see Cold War radio jamming.

The diaspora. The government levies a 2 per cent tax on income of Eritreans abroad, which it describes as voluntary; the UN Security Council condemned its coercive collection in Resolution 2023 of December 2011, adopted 13 to 0 with China and Russia abstaining. State-linked "Eritrea festivals" abroad have drawn protests: police were injured at Giessen, Germany, in July 2023, and violence followed in Stockholm in August 2023 (Al Jazeera; researchers writing in the Review of African Political Economy, 2024, describe the festivals as both cultural events and a source of revenue and support for the government). Opponents and supporters differ on whether the events are cultural gatherings or party fundraising.

Peace, war and sanctions. The Joint Declaration with Ethiopia of 9 July 2018 (confirmed at Jeddah on 16 September 2018) ended the state of war, and the UN Security Council lifted its sanctions on 14 November 2018. Eritrean forces entered Tigray from November 2020; Ethiopia's prime minister acknowledged this on 23 March 2021, after earlier denials, and Eritrea acknowledged its troops in a letter to the Security Council in mid-April 2021 and said they would withdraw. Eritrea was not a party to the Pretoria agreement of 2 November 2022; HRW reports that Eritrean forces still occupy parts of Tigray.

Timeline

• 24 May 1991: the EPLF enters Asmara; the Provisional Government of Eritrea, headed by Isaias Afwerki, is formed.
• 23 to 25 April 1993: independence referendum, UN-verified, about 99.8 per cent in favour.
• 24 May 1993: independence declared; the National Assembly elects Isaias president; UN membership on 28 May.
• 16 February 1994: the EPLF becomes the PFDJ at its third congress.
• 1995: National Service Proclamation No. 82 sets service at 18 months.
• 23 May 1997: constitution ratified; it has not been implemented.
• May 1998 to June 2000: war with Ethiopia (a ceasefire on 18 June 2000); the Algiers Agreement is signed on 12 December 2000.
• May 2001: the G-15 open letter; 18 September 2001, arrests of eleven signatories and the ban on private media; 21 to 23 September, arrests of journalists.
• 2002: the Warsay-Yikealo Development Campaign; in April 2002 the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission issues its "final and binding" boundary decision, which awarded Badme to Eritrea, and Ethiopia does not implement it at that time.
• 22 December 2009 and 5 December 2011: UN sanctions imposed and the diaspora tax condemned (Resolution 2023).
• 8 June 2016: UN Commission of Inquiry report; the government rejects it.
• 9 July and 16 September 2018: peace with Ethiopia; 14 November 2018, UN sanctions lifted.
• November 2020 to November 2022: the Tigray war; Eritrean forces acknowledged in April 2021.
• 18 September 2026: the 2021 U.S. national emergency lapses and sanctions on the PFDJ and Defence Forces end.
• 1 to 2 October 2026: Ethiopia orders its embassy in Eritrea closed; Eritrea severs diplomatic ties.

Where it stands as of October 2, 2026

Isaias Afwerki remains president, the PFDJ the only legal party, and the 1997 constitution is unimplemented. Yemane Gebremeskel is Information Minister, and no independent domestic press has existed since 2001. The United States let the national emergency of September 2021 lapse on 18 September 2026, a step the State Department said would "advance US regional interests"; Yemane Gebremeskel said the earlier sanctions "were not warranted by any metrics" (Al Jazeera, 19 September 2026). In February 2026 Ethiopia accused Eritrea of occupying Ethiopian territory and backing rebels; the Ministry of Information called the accusations "astounding in tone and substance", and Human Rights Watch describes the tension as rising notably over "Ethiopia's ongoing quest for access to the sea." On 1 to 2 October 2026 Ethiopia ordered its embassy closed and expelled ten Eritrean diplomats after accusing Eritrea, Sudan and Egypt of backing the TPLF alliance; all three deny it, and Eritrea's foreign ministry said Eritrea "has no option but to reciprocate in kind and sever all diplomatic ties" (Al Jazeera, 1 October 2026; Reuters attributes the words to Yemane Gebremeskel). These events were unfolding on the day of writing and may change.

Same-standard note

This page uses the same structure and technique definitions as every other regime page, and applies them on the same terms: a technique is listed only where the working definition and a documented example fit, and the government's own statements are quoted and attributed in the same way as outside findings. The facts are a snapshot as of 2 October 2026 and several sources are secondary; the quotations from Isaias and from the Ministries are taken from the UN Commission of Inquiry's report, which cites the originals, and the broadcast and interview texts themselves were not retrieved. Where scholars and the government disagree, in particular on whether external threat explains national service, both views are stated and the page does not decide between them. Scale and context differ from other regime pages, and nothing here implies equivalence.

Sources

• UN Human Rights Council, Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in Eritrea, A/HRC/32/CRP.1, 8 June 2016 (paragraphs 62, 75, 80 to 83, 108, 138 to 139, 199 to 201, 234, 243); OHCHR Commission page; OHCHR Special Rapporteur page; Martin Plaut on the 6 July 2026 vote.
• Human Rights Watch, World Report 2026: Eritrea; Amnesty International, Release journalists and politicians arrested 20 years ago and Eritrea: repression past and present; CPJ, Dawit Isaak and 15 journalists imprisoned in Eritrea.
• Reporters Without Borders, Eritrea country page (2025 and 2026 rank), Eritrea ended media freedom 15 years ago this month, Radio Erena; Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2025: Eritrea; State Media Monitor, Eri-TV and Dimtsi Hafash; BuddeComm, Eritrea telecoms.
• Government statements: Shabait.com, Isaias Afwerki interviews (listed; the site was not retrievable for this page); Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement of 19 June 2015 and Ministry of Information statement of December 2015, both quoted in the COI report; Shabait.com, United States lifts unilateral sanctions on Eritrea, 19 September 2026.
• Events and reporting: Al Jazeera on the COI report; Al Jazeera, 17 April 2021; Al Jazeera, 19 September 2026; Reuters via TimesLIVE, 2 October 2026; Addis Standard, February 2026; UN News, 14 November 2018; ASIL on the 9 July 2018 declaration; Al Jazeera, Giessen and diaspora events, 17 September 2023; ROAPE, Eritrea's foreign festivals; Plaut on the diaspora tax; Security Council Resolution 2023 (2011).
• Referendum and early state: UN photo record of UNOVER; Shabait.com, Golden Days, 23 to 25 April 1993; U.S. State Department background notes on Eritrea; the PFDJ National Charter, adopted at Nakfa, 10 to 16 February 1994.
• Scholarship: Dan Connell, Against All Odds (1993), Enough! A Critique of Eritrea's Post-Liberation Politics and Conversations with Eritrean Political Prisoners (author page); Gaim Kibreab, Eritrea: A Dream Deferred (2009) and The Eritrean National Service (Boydell); Bereket Habte Selassie, Wounded Nation (2010); Kjetil Tronvoll and Daniel R. Mekonnen, The African Garrison State (2014) (review); Martin Plaut, Understanding Eritrea (2016) (review); Alex de Waal, The Real Politics of the Horn of Africa (2015) (interview); Michael Woldemariam on the Eritrea-Ethiopia rivalry (African Union library record).
• Officeholders: Africa Confidential on Yemane Gebremeskel; Awate on his appointment; UN Secretary-General readout, 29 September 2025; Asharq Al-Awsat, 21 September 2026; Martin Plaut, interview with Ali Abdu, 30 January 2013; Martin Plaut, the Eritrean cabinet, 2 October 2024 (Sebhat Ephrem); African Arguments, "All the President's Men", November 2023 (Filipos Woldeyohannes); Al Jazeera, 1 October 2026; Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission, Permanent Court of Arbitration and Eritrean-Ethiopian War, Wikipedia (war and boundary dates; the treaty text and decision were not read directly); Shabait, Eritrea at a Glance (newspapers). Start years of Ali Abdu Ahmed (2002) and Sebhat Ephrem (1995) were found only in Wikipedia and are not stated on this page.
• Portraits and images: Wikimedia Commons file pages in each entry's frontmatter and in the images file for this page.

In the archive

Collection objects (2)