Violent clashes between rival groups of Eritreans in Tel Aviv yesterday left some 140 people injured, about fifteen of them severely, with about 30 police officers among them. One policeman was badly wounded by a camping stove hurled by demonstrators that hit him in the head. The disturbances stretched the capacity of the police to its limit. The Israel Police had allowed an event to take place marking the 30th anniversary of Eritrean independence, and opponents of the Eritrean regime to hold a demonstration against it, but said that the two sides had not adhered to the agreed arrangements, and that the intensity of the confrontation between the two groups had taken the police by surprise. Eritreans make up the majority of about 30,000 asylum seekers in Israel.
The background to yesterday’s events in Tel Aviv is the spread of both supporters and opponents of the Eritrean regime around the world. Eritrea won independence from Ethiopia in 1993, after 30 years of fighting. In fact, the tension between the two countries ended only in 2018.
Eritrea is a dictatorship. Since independence, it has been ruled by the all-powerful President Isaias Afwerki. It is one of the poorest countries in Africa, ranked 41st on the continent for annual GDP per capita, which amounts to $2,078.
According to estimates by the UN, in the past few years hundreds of thousands of Eritreans have left the country and migrated to countries of the Mediterranean basin and Europe, via Sudan.
Because of the repressive nature of the regime, Eritrea is known as "the North Korea of Africa". According to the Global Slavery Index 2023, North Korea, Eritrea, and Mauritania are the worst countries for modern slavery. According to the index, 50 million people worldwide lived under conditions of slavery in 2021, which compares with 10 million in 2016. In North Korea, the slavery ratio in the population is 104.6 per thousand; in Eritrea it is 90.3 per thousand; and in Mauritania it is 32 per thousand.
In early August, an Eritrean cultural festival took place in Sweden, where hundreds of thousands of Eritrean migrants live, organized by the Eritrean embassy in Stockholm. Opponents of the Eritrean regime engaged in protests that led to 52 people being injured and between 100 and 200 arrests. According to the protesters, such cultural events are a means of raising money for the country.
In Germany, at least 26 police personnel were injured at a similar event in Giessen, and likewise nine police were injured in Toronto.
As in the case of many African countries, China and Russia are trying to gain footholds in Eritrea. The country has strategic significance because of its location in the Horn of Africa and capacity to affect the entrance to the Red Sea. As part of its Belt and Road program, China has been building ports, roads, and hydro-electric power plants in the country.
Despite its dire economic situation, Eritrea’s regional status has been improving. Two and a half months ago, the country regained membership of the East African bloc, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), sixteen years after pulling out of it, after the organization turned to Kenya to supervise the resolution of Eritrea’s border dispute with Ethiopia.
The disturbances during the say yesterday did not prevent the weekly demonstration against the government’s judicial overhaul program from taking place yesterday evening, for the 35th successive week.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on September 3, 2023.
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