Wednesday 26 April 2017

Poverty Levels Increase from Conflict in Eritrea

26 Mar 2014

Poverty Levels Increase from Conflict in Eritrea

eritrea
Situated on the Red Sea, Eritrea is one of the youngest independent countries in the world, but it is also one of the poorest. Eritrea has had to deal with being a small, seriously poor country with many socio-economic problems since it won independence from Ethiopia after 30 years of war in 1993. Like many African nations, the Eritrean economy is largely based on subsistence agriculture with around 60% of its population relying on agricultural activities, like livestock and crop production or fishing, for food and income. In 2003, Eritrea had an annual per capita income of $150 and as a result was ranked at 155 out of 175 countries on the Human Development Index. Food insecurity and poverty are extremely widespread and are increasing; nearly half of their food has to be imported even with adequate rainfall.
More than 50% of the entire country was below the poverty line, and 44% of children under the age of five were underweight between 1990 and 2001. Around 2 million Eritrean people, a large amount of the population, are experiencing economic hardship. The low productivity of their livestock enterprises and crops extremely harm rural households, the most affected by poverty. Nearly two-thirds of all the households in Eritrea lack food security.
Some of the worst droughts in Eritrea’s history threatened the lives of over a third of the population from 2002-2004. Large quantities of livestock perished or were sold fairly cheaply to pay for food and crop production greatly fell by about 25%. Malnutrition levels are very high in Eritrea and the rural people do not have much access to social services like healthcare and purification systems for clean drinking water. Many women are the heads of their households and have to produce food and care for their children. These types of households are largely disadvantaged because they rely greatly on the help of male relatives and neighbors who may not always be available when they are needed.
The mandatory military service and armed conflicts take many men away from their families and villages and this plays a large role on the severity of poverty in the country. The border war between Eritrea and Ethiopia left tens of thousands of people killed and although a peace deal was agreed upon, there are still tensions between the disputed territories. There have been more people condemned to poverty than have been lifted out of poverty from the war in Eritrea, but the government has been working toward diplomatic solutions with Ethiopia. After Ethiopia sent in troops to Eritrea in March 2012, Eritrea remained peaceful and announced that it would not retaliate, rather it would use the proper diplomatic channels to resolve the issue and eventually bring economic growth to both countries.
Though the situation does not look promising for many rural families, Eritrea has traditional ways of protecting the rural poor communities. Wealthier families dispose of assets, like livestock and crops, and then make loans to their poorer relatives and neighbors during times of great stress. A community’s wealthier families will help households that are physically unable to cultivate their own land at different times of the agricultural cycle.
– Kenneth W. Kliesner
Sources: Geneva-Academy, IRIN News, Rural Poverty Portal
Photo: WFP

3 Ways to Increase Girls’ Education in Eritrea Eritrean women help drive progress despite difficult situations

3 Ways to Increase Girls’ Education in Eritrea

Eritrean women help drive progress despite difficult situations

Eritrean women help drive progress despite difficult situations

Eritrean women help drive progress despite difficult situations

Credit: Jacopo, Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/people/native/
In 1979, Eritrea was in the middle of its battle for independence. During this time education was seen as essential to build the social capital of the Eritrean community, as a key principle of social justice and a human right.  However, parents would only send boys to school.
On a recent trip to Eritrea to pilot a new Gender Analysis Tool (prepared by the Global Partnership for Education and the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative) to analyze whether countries are on track to achieve gender equality in education, we had the pleasure of meeting four dynamic women who lived through this difficult time: Luul Gebreab, President of Tsega Gaim Misgun, Director General for Social Service; Worku Zerai, an international consultant; and Mhret Iyob, Director General of the UNESCO National Commission for Eritrea. These four women are founding members of the National Union of Eritrean Women (NUEW), a grassroots organization established in 1979, dedicated to improving the status of Eritrean women.

Giving parents an ultimatum

During the time of the battle for independence, these four women fought behind the trenches to ensure all children had access to education. They created make-shift schools, disseminated political messages and organized supporters.  When make-shift classrooms under trees were bombed, schools were moved into caves and eventually simple structures were built and classes were taught with minimal supplies and learning materials. Despite progress, girls were being excluded from education.
A teacher at the time, Tsega Gaim Misgun, took matters into her own hands.
“I told the parents to send their daughters to school, but no one would listen. But I gave them an ultimatum. Bring your daughters by 10.00 this morning, or I will close the school.”
Parents then started bringing their daughters to school and realized the importance of education. 
Now when these four women travel through Eritrea, they are recognized by their former students who work in all professions.  “This is our proudest accomplishment—to see girls and boys we taught and mentored in professional positions. One girl became a pilot in the air force, another a high profile journalist.” 

Three Innovative Ways to Ensure Girls Are EducatedNUEW’s main focus is to coordinate gender issues, mainstream gender and advocate for the cause of Eritrean women.  Over the years, NUEW has directly designed and implemented projects and activities to increase access education and training; formulate programs to promote women’s literacy; and improve community attitudes for girls’ education.  Three innovative examples are highlighted below:

1. Bicycles
There was a high drop-out rate for girls in the Debre Bizen Secondary School near the town of Nefasit, largely due the distance of the school from their homes.  NUEW selected 118 girls who travel more than nine kilometers to be part of a project where 60 girls received bicycles. Of those, 55 completed secondary school and took the matriculation exam.
2. Donkeys and canvas water tanks
NUEW helped to introduce measures to bring more girls into school by providing over 10,000 families with donkeys. In this project, women in rural areas were provided a donkey and canvas water tank. As a result, thousands of girls were able to go to school rather than fetch water. The project also helped with gender roles as boys and men started using the donkey and shared in the water fetching activities.
3. Engage Communities
The rates of female genital mutilation (FGM) in Eritrea are very high—83% of females nationally have been cut; under the age of 15 rates have reduced to under 15%.  In order to engage communities about this harmful and painful practice, the Ministry of Health developed a film and started an advocacy drive to show the film across the country to students and their families. Eventually villages started public declarations against FGM.
NUEW helped create reproductive and gender committees all over the country, which included equal numbers of men and women, girls and boys from the communities.  NUEW developed and presented the President of Eritrea with a report on the devastating effects of FGM and encouraged the government to pass legislation against the practice.  In 2007, the law was approved but remained difficult to enforce. The NUEW committees get the communities involved and as a result, over 900 cases have been reported to the police since 2007.
These dynamic and courageous women have led the way for other girls and young women to make a difference not only to gender equality in education, but for the whole nation of Eritrea.
Read more about the National Women of Eritrean Women.
Sub-Saharan Africa: Eritrea

Comments - Join the Conversation

USAID Interested in Eritrea?

Hello,
Nice to see an article on Eritrea. It is a welcome news to hear USAID taking interest in Eritrea. Should we expect USAID coming back to Eritrea?
An Eritrean
Credit: Jacopo, Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/people/native/
In 1979, Eritrea was in the middle of its battle for independence. During this time education was seen as essential to build the social capital of the Eritrean community, as a key principle of social justice and a human right.  However, parents would only send boys to school.
On a recent trip to Eritrea to pilot a new Gender Analysis Tool (prepared by the Global Partnership for Education and the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative) to analyze whether countries are on track to achieve gender equality in education, we had the pleasure of meeting four dynamic women who lived through this difficult time: Luul Gebreab, President of Tsega Gaim Misgun, Director General for Social Service; Worku Zerai, an international consultant; and Mhret Iyob, Director General of the UNESCO National Commission for Eritrea. These four women are founding members of the National Union of Eritrean Women (NUEW), a grassroots organization established in 1979, dedicated to improving the status of Eritrean women.

Giving parents an ultimatum

During the time of the battle for independence, these four women fought behind the trenches to ensure all children had access to education. They created make-shift schools, disseminated political messages and organized supporters.  When make-shift classrooms under trees were bombed, schools were moved into caves and eventually simple structures were built and classes were taught with minimal supplies and learning materials. Despite progress, girls were being excluded from education.
A teacher at the time, Tsega Gaim Misgun, took matters into her own hands.
“I told the parents to send their daughters to school, but no one would listen. But I gave them an ultimatum. Bring your daughters by 10.00 this morning, or I will close the school.”
Parents then started bringing their daughters to school and realized the importance of education. 
Now when these four women travel through Eritrea, they are recognized by their former students who work in all professions.  “This is our proudest accomplishment—to see girls and boys we taught and mentored in professional positions. One girl became a pilot in the air force, another a high profile journalist.” 

Three Innovative Ways to Ensure Girls Are Educated

NUEW’s main focus is to coordinate gender issues, mainstream gender and advocate for the cause of Eritrean women.  Over the years, NUEW has directly designed and implemented projects and activities to increase access education and training; formulate programs to promote women’s literacy; and improve community attitudes for girls’ education.  Three innovative examples are highlighted below:
1. Bicycles
There was a high drop-out rate for girls in the Debre Bizen Secondary School near the town of Nefasit, largely due the distance of the school from their homes.  NUEW selected 118 girls who travel more than nine kilometers to be part of a project where 60 girls received bicycles. Of those, 55 completed secondary school and took the matriculation exam.
2. Donkeys and canvas water tanks
NUEW helped to introduce measures to bring more girls into school by providing over 10,000 families with donkeys. In this project, women in rural areas were provided a donkey and canvas water tank. As a result, thousands of girls were able to go to school rather than fetch water. The project also helped with gender roles as boys and men started using the donkey and shared in the water fetching activities.
3. Engage Communities
The rates of female genital mutilation (FGM) in Eritrea are very high—83% of females nationally have been cut; under the age of 15 rates have reduced to under 15%.  In order to engage communities about this harmful and painful practice, the Ministry of Health developed a film and started an advocacy drive to show the film across the country to students and their families. Eventually villages started public declarations against FGM.
NUEW helped create reproductive and gender committees all over the country, which included equal numbers of men and women, girls and boys from the communities.  NUEW developed and presented the President of Eritrea with a report on the devastating effects of FGM and encouraged the government to pass legislation against the practice.  In 2007, the law was approved but remained difficult to enforce. The NUEW committees get the communities involved and as a result, over 900 cases have been reported to the police since 2007.
These dynamic and courageous women have led the way for other girls and young women to make a difference not only to gender equality in education, but for the whole nation of Eritrea.
Read more about the National Women of Eritrean Women.
Sub-Saharan Africa: Eritrea

Comments - Join the Conversation

USAID Interested in Eritrea?

Hello,
Nice to see an article on Eritrea. It is a welcome news to hear USAID taking interest in Eritrea. Should we expect USAID coming back to Eritrea?
An Eritrean

Sharp increase in number of Eritrean refugees and asylum-seekers in Europe, Ethiopia and Sudan

Sharp increase in number of Eritrean refugees and asylum-seekers in Europe, Ethiopia and Sudan

This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Adrian Edwards to whom quoted text may be attributed at today's press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
During the first ten months of 2014, the number of asylum-seekers in Europe from Eritrea has nearly tripled. In Ethiopia and Sudan, neighbouring Eritrea, the number of Eritrean refugees has also increased sharply. So far this year, nearly 37,000 Eritreans have sought refuge in Europe, compared to almost 13,000 during the same period last year. Most asylum requests have been lodged in Sweden, Germany, and Switzerland, with the vast majority of the Eritreans having arrived by boat across the Mediterranean. Our office in Italy reports that 22 per cent of the people arriving by boat are Eritrean, a total of nearly 34,000 people this year. This makes Eritreans the second largest group to arrive in Italy by boat, after Syrians.
Most of the Eritreans arriving in Europe have travelled, initially, via Ethiopia and Sudan. These countries have also experienced a dramatic increase in arrivals, including large numbers of unaccompanied children. More than 5,000 Eritreans crossed into Ethiopia during the month of October alone, compared to the average of some 2,000 arrivals per month since the beginning of the year. About 90 per cent of those who arrived in October are between 18 - 24 years old. Seventy-eight children arrived on their own, without an adult family member. The trend seems to continue with more than 1,200 Eritreans having arrived in Ethiopia during the first week of November.
In Sudan, we have also been witnessing a marked increase in the number of arrivals since the beginning of 2014. This year, more than 10,700 Eritreans have sought refuge in Sudan, an average of more than 1,000 arrivals per month.
There are currently more than 216,000 Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia and Sudan. Sudan has been hosting Eritrean refugees for more than forty years, which makes it one of Africa’s most protracted refugee situations. Eritreans started to arrive in Ethiopia in 2002, after the end of the conflict between the two countries. The recent arrivals told us that they were fleeing an intensified recruitment drive into the mandatory and often open-ended national service.
Growing numbers of the predominantly young refugees in Ethiopia and Sudan have become frustrated with the shortage of services and absence of self-reliance opportunities in the camps. Limited funding for the Eritrean refugee programme in both countries has resulted in a lack of secondary and post-secondary education, as well as vocational training and job opportunities. Deprived of any prospects for a better future and feeling that they have nothing to lose, many fall prey to unscrupulous smugglers and put themselves in danger by trying to cross the Mediterranean on overcrowded and unsafe boats. We are extremely concerned that the refugees crossing into Ethiopia today will eventually try to move on.
There is a need to boost education and livelihood opportunities for the refugees in the countries neighbouring Eritrea to prevent people moving on simply out of desperation. At the same time, we also call on Europe to step up efforts to provide credible legal alternatives to dangerous voyages, to protect people from the risks of traveling with smugglers. The collective response needs to maintain a strong capacity to rescue people at sea and increase safer ways for refugees to find safety, including enhanced resettlement, other forms of humanitarian admission and private sponsorship schemes. UNHCR is calling on European governments to do more to facilitate family reunification and use programmes such as student or employment visas to benefit refugees.
Additional Information:
During the first 10 months of 2014, 36,678 Eritreans sought refuge in 38 European countries in 2014, compared to 12,960 during the same period last year. Most asylum requests were presented in Sweden (9,531), Germany, (9,362) Switzerland (5,652) and the Netherlands (4,113). Authorities in Italy recorded 342 asylum applications by Eritreans thus far this year.
Sudan is the main country of asylum for Eritreans with 109,594 refugees at the end of October 2014. 10,701 people have arrived since the beginning of the year, including 1,259 during the month of October. The majority of the refugees are in refugee camps in the arid eastern part of the country (Gaderef and Kassala), with smaller numbers in the capital Khartoum.
Ethiopia is the second largest country of asylum with 106,859 Eritrean refugees, including 1,591 unaccompanied children at the end of October. They mostly live in four refugee camps in Tigray region and two in Afar region in north-eastern Ethiopia
For more information on this topic, please contact:
  • In Addis Ababa, Kisut Gebre Egziabher on mobile +25 19 11 20 89 01
  • In Geneva, Adrian Edwards on mobile +41 79 557 9120
  • In Geneva, Karin de Gruijl on mobile +41 79 255 92 13
  • In Geneva, William Spindler on mobile +41 79 217 3011
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=U5DmN-534sIC&pg=PA3&lpg=PA3&dq=increase+eritrea&source=bl&ots=Oo8Ut7JAI6&sig=hTAHpRmfR-fdC_VDdmmFYTn0jbY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwirjtPPucDTAhUpLcAKHdudAKs4FBDoAQgsMAI#v=onepage&q=increase%20eritrea&f=false

Sharp increase of imported Plasmodium vivax malaria seen in migrants from Eritrea in Hamburg, Germany

Sharp increase of imported Plasmodium vivax malaria seen in migrants from Eritrea in Hamburg, Germany    readmore https://malariajournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12936-016-1366-7

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Abstract

Background

Since 2014, a considerable increase in Plasmodium vivax malaria has been observed in Germany. The majority of cases was seen in Eritrean refugees.

Methods

All patients with P. vivax malaria admitted to the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf Germany from 2011 until August 2015 were retrospectively identified by the hospital coding system and data was matched with records from the laboratory diagnostics unit of the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, Germany.

Results

Between May 2014 and August 2015, 37 cases were reported in newly-arrived Eritrean refugees at the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany. Relapses occurred due to difficulties in procurement of primaquine.

Conclusion

Countries hosting Eritrean refugees need to be aware of vivax malaria occurring in this group and the risk of autochthonous cases due to local transmission by indigenous, vector competent Anopheles species.

Eritrea Receives U.S.$15 Million Ifad Grant to Boost Fisheries Sector and Nutrition

Eritrea Receives U.S.$15 Million Ifad Grant to Boost Fisheries Sector and Nutrition



Photo: Jacapo
A street in Asmara, Eritrea (file photo).
Rome — A total of 17,500 poor rural households in six regions of Eritrea will benefit from a financial agreement signed today between the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Eritrea to boost coastal and inland fisheries.
The total cost of the Programme is US$32.1 million of which IFAD is providing a US$15 million grant. It is co-financed by the Government of Germany ($5.9 million), the Global Environment Facility ($7.9 million), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations ($0.5 million), the Government of Eritrea ($1.4 million) and by the beneficiaries themselves ($1.3 million).
The financial agreement for the Fisheries Resources Management Programme (FReMP) was signed in Rome by Michel Mordasini, Vice-President of IFAD; and Fessahazion Pietros, Ambassador of Eritrea to Italy and Permanent Representative Eritrea to Rome-based UN agencies, in the presence of Arefaine Berhe, Minister for Agriculture of Eritrea.
Eritrea has substantial and relatively underexploited marine and fisheries resources that have been underutilized for decades compared to neighbouring countries. These resources exist in an unpolluted, underexploited and under-capitalized marine environment. The Programme intends to invest both in large fisheries and small pelagics.
The Government of Eritrea has been making significant investments in the inland regions by constructing water retention dams in the inland regions. It has established 330 reservoirs, of which 70 are stocked with different fish species. However, the inland fisheries resources have are hardly been exploited because local communities are generally not aware of the nutritional benefits of and they lack fishing skills and equipment, apart from the fact that traditionally they are not fishers. The Programme aims to positively change this situation by raising awareness, imparting the right skills and enabling the communities (especially youth and women) to acquire equipment for fishing, fish processing and marketing.
"This innovative programme will ensure that the country's marine fishery resources are utilized in a sustainable manner to improve the livelihoods of Red Sea coastal communities," said Eric Rwabidadi, IFAD Country Programme Manager for Eritrea. "Moreover, inland fisheries and aquaculture present another great investment opportunity to increase fish production, incomes, nutrition and employment, especially for youth and women," he added.
FReMP will support the establishment of infrastructure, and technologies for production, post-harvest operations and marketing of both marine and inland fisheries. In addition, it will promote the development and capacity building of cooperatives and other enterprises and ensure that they have access to the requisite tools to undertake economically viable and sustainable fish-related businesses.
Specifically, the programme will target 15 water reservoirs to demonstrate good practice and test successful models that can be replicated and scaled up in other reservoirs. It will also assist in developing climate resilient plans for the water reservoirs, which will lead to improved crop and livestock production. The aim is to not only increase incomes but also to improve food and nutrition security, through availability of increased quantity and quality fish.
In short, the programme is expected to transform Eritrea's small-scale fisheries sector from subsistence to a sustainable commercial fish industry.
Since 1995, IFAD has financed five rural development programmes and projects in Eritrea for a total cost of $124.3 million, with an IFAD investment of $73.1 million directly benefiting 293,942 rural households.
IFAD invests in rural people, empowering them to reduce poverty, increase food security, improve nutrition and strengthen resilience. Since 1978, we have provided about US$18 billion in grants and low-interest loans to projects that have reached some 462 million people. IFAD is an international financial institution and a specialized United Nations agency based in Rome - the UN's food and agriculture hub.

History of immigration from Eritrea

                                 History of immigration from Eritrea

     Select a language: source https://museumvictoria.com.au/origins/history.aspx?pid=221
Map of Eritrea
Map date: 2013
The Eritrean community is relatively new in Victoria. Eritrea-born Victorians were first recorded in the 1996 census at which time there were 745. By 2001 their number had grown to 998, representing a 40% increase.

Eritrea has a long history of foreign occupation; South Arabians, Ottoman Turks, the Portuguese, the Egyptians, the British and the Italians. Over the centuries, invaders also came from the neighbouring African countries of Ethiopia and Sudan.

Present-day large scale migration from Eritrea has its roots in years of fighting for independence from Ethiopia. During this time many Eritreans fled to refugee camps in surrounding countries. Since independence, in 1993, many have been repatriated but for others repatriation was not a viable option.

Since independence many Eritreans have come here under Family Reunion scheme, prompted by circumstance. Eritrea has been devastated by decades of war and the effects of continual drought, widespread presence of land mines and little arable land. In addition, economic instability and the threat of border conflict with Ethiopia mean that many Eritreans are continuing to flee their country.

The 2011 census recorded 1,520 Eritrea-born Victorians, an increase of 25% since 2006. The majority, 51%, speaks Arabic at home and 33% speaks Tigrinya; smaller numbers speak Tigre and English. The vast majority, 65%, is Muslim, 17% identify as Eastern Orthodox and 6% are Catholic.

The Eritrea-born community is young, with 65% under the age of 45. Of those employed, 35% are employed in the clerical, sales and service field, 19% fulfil managerial, professional and associated roles and 20% are employed as production and transport workers,. 13% live in the local government area of Melbourne , 13% live in Moonee Valley, and a similar number live in the Brimbank area.

The community is supported by the Victorian Eritrean Community Association and the National Eritrean Communities Council. An Eritrean Festival is held in Melbourne each January. The community accesses information from Eritrea via free international cable EreTV.
Eritrea
Country Info

Eritrea MIGRATION PROFILES

Eritrea MIGRATION PROFILES - United Nations Department of ..

https://esa.un.org/miggmgprofiles/indicators/files/Eritrea.pdf

Population of Eritrea (2017 and historical)

http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/eritrea-population/

Thousands flee isolated Eritrea to escape life of conscription and poverty


source https://www.wsj.com/articles/eritreans-flee-conscription-and-poverty-adding-to-the-migrant-crisis-in-europe-1445391364                                                                                                               ASMARA, Eritrea—On a cool March evening soon after his 16th birthday, Binyam Abraham waited until his mother and young siblings were sleeping and slipped away to begin the long trek toward Eritrea’s southern border.
With his father trapped in open-ended military service that would soon snare him, too, Binyam walked for 19 hours without food or water to reach Ethiopia. He made a choice 5,000 of his countrymen make each month, by a United Nations estimate: to flee Eritrea and brave the world’s deadliest migrant trail, across the Sahara and the Mediterranean to Europe.
They leave behind one of the world’s fastest-emptying nations: a country of about 4.5 million on the Horn of Africa, governed by a secretive dictatorship accused of human-rights violations, that is playing an outsize role in the biggest global migration crisis since World War II.
Eritrean women gather water at a community point in Adi-Harush Camp, one of the refugee camps in Ethiopia where people fleeing Eritrea stay, for months or sometimes years, before paying smugglers to take them to Europe.
Eritrean women gather water at a community point in Adi-Harush Camp, one of the refugee camps in Ethiopia where people fleeing Eritrea stay, for months or sometimes years, before paying smugglers to take them to Europe.
“I didn’t tell my mother before I left, but I didn’t have a choice,” Binyam said, sitting in a mud-brick shack at Adi-Harush, a refugee camp in the foothills of Ethiopia’s Simien Mountains that has become ground zero for Eritrea’s exodus. Flanked by five young friends, all planning to brave the same dangerous journey, he said: “I have to go to Europe so I can help my family.”
Attention is focused, amid the intensifying migration crisis, on Syrians fleeing civil war and making a dramatic run to Europe. Yet by some measures, the exodus from the smaller Eritrea is more extreme. From the start of 2012 to the middle of this year, 1 in 50 Eritreans sought asylum in Europe, nearly twice the ratio of Syrians, based on data from the European Union statistical service Eurostat.
The U.N. estimates that 400,000 Eritreans—9% of the population—have fled in recent years, not counting those who died or were stranded en route.
Watch the video: Binyam Abraham (above) and Shewit Hadera talk about why they decided to leave Eritrea and what’s ahead for them. Photo: Nichole Sobecki for The Wall Street Journal
On the rickety smuggling boats crossing the Mediterranean, Eritreans comfortably outnumber other nationalities. More than a quarter of the 132,000 migrants arriving in Italy between January and September were Eritreans, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
Eritreans accounted for a majority of the 3,000 people who have drowned in the Mediterranean this year, humanitarian agencies say.
Despite this toll, emigration here is accelerating. The number of Eritreans seeking asylum in Europe quadrupled from 2011 to 46,000 last year. The exodus is catapulting the African country to the center of a divisive EU debate over which nations’ migrants should be granted refugee status, as the bloc struggles to respond to the wave from Syria.
The Eritreans flee one of the world’s most isolated nations, governed under emergency rule since a war with Ethiopia in 1998. Eritrea earlier fought a 30-year struggle for independence from Ethiopia, which is 20 times its size.
This David-and-Goliath dynamic has spurred Eritrea to maintain a state of emergency for 17 years, officials in Asmara said—suspending political, economic and social progress for the sake of national security.
An Eritrean woman and her young son outside their hut in Adi-Harush refugee camp in Ethiopia, a country that hosts tens of thousands of Eritreans who have fled their harsh and poor country and hope to make the journey to Europe.
An Eritrean woman and her young son outside their hut in Adi-Harush refugee camp in Ethiopia, a country that hosts tens of thousands of Eritreans who have fled their harsh and poor country and hope to make the journey to Europe.
A June U.N. report accused the regime, led by former rebel commander Isaias Afewerki, of “crimes against humanity” targeting its own population, including torture, mass surveillance and indefinite military conscription that amounts to a form of slavery. The government said the report, based on interviews done outside the country, was biased and false.
Eritrea is also under U.N. sanctions on a charge of supporting al Qaeda-linked terrorism in Somalia. In Eritrea, which is evenly split between Christians and Muslims, the government denies the charge.
Eritreans have been welcomed as refugees by EU governments since the 1980s, when they were fighting for independence against a Communist government in Ethiopia, according to the International Organization for Migration. But EU officials and migration experts say that now, Europe’s visceral debate over migration is pushing governments to reconsider that stance.
African asylum seekers are already being sidelined, say migration policy makers from the U.N. and other organizations.
“While Syrians are fleeing an obviously terrible and documented civil war, Eritreans are fleeing abuses which to the rest of the world are largely invisible because of the regime’s secretiveness,” said Kristina Touzenis, head of the of the Migration Law Unit of the International Organization for Migration, or IOM.
In some countries, a policy shift has begun. The U.K. in the second quarter of this year cut the number of Eritrean asylum seekers accepted to 29% of applicants from 77% in the previous quarter.
The secrecy of Eritrea’s government, which expelled foreign correspondents in 2008, makes it difficult to document forces behind the exodus.
Seen on a rare trip by a Wall Street Journal reporter to Asmara—Eritrea’s showpiece capital famed for the fading grandeur of its Italian architecture—the slow pace of life contrasted with the region’s buzzing and chaotic metropolises. Residents gathered at cafes or loitered under modernist facades. Staples like milk were in short supply.
Refugees from Eritrea staying at Adi-Harush camp in Ethiopia and other such camps use their smartphones to stay in touch with their families back home and with friends along the smuggling trail to Europe.
Refugees from Eritrea staying at Adi-Harush camp in Ethiopia and other such camps use their smartphones to stay in touch with their families back home and with friends along the smuggling trail to Europe.
Eritrean officials say asylum seekers exaggerate hardships and leave because Europeans grant them refugee status. “If people feel that if you get to Europe asylum is easy, that’s a pull factor,” said Information Minister Yemane Ghebre Meskel.
Indefinite conscription and isolation are necessary, he said, because the country remains effectively at war with Ethiopia, which he said occupies Eritrean territory in violation of a U.N.-sponsored peace agreement. Ethiopia denies that any land it controls belongs to Eritrea.
Eritreans abroad say they are pushed to leave by conscription that enlists every man and woman in the military during their last year of high school. Last week, 10 Eritrean soccer players who were in Botswana for a match defected there. Some Eritrean refugees fled to Israel through the Sinai Desert until Israel erected a fence there. This week, an Eritrean man was killed in Israel when attacked by a mob who mistook him for an assailant at an earlier bus-stop attack.
Teenagers are inducted at the Sawa military base, get four months of training, then take an exam that determines whether they are put in active service or allowed to continue their education as reservists. Around two-thirds are immediately mobilized as soldiers. But all remain conscripts, often for decades. They are locked in a system that pays a monthly stipend of 500 nakfa, about $10 on the black market, and forbidden to leave the country.
Eritrean officials said they are in the process of introducing a pay scale that better rewards educated and more experienced conscripts.
“A lot of our population, especially the young, were forced to be engaged in the defense of the country rather than in the productive sector,” said Hagos Ghebrehiwet, the ruling party economics chief. “Our land is occupied, and the international community is not doing anything.”
An Eritrean woman prays at dawn beside an Orthodox Church at Adi-Harush refugee camp in Ethiopia.
Shewit Hadera stands before a church at the camp. He arrived after an earlier attempt to flee Eritrea landed him in jail, where he says he was tortured. Eritrea’s information minister said, ‘Torture is not allowed; that does not mean it may not happen here and there.’
Officials say the exodus has one upside for the impoverished nation: hard currency. Money from the expanding diaspora provides a badly needed boost to the economy.
In late September, dozens of emigrants who had secured citizenship and livelihoods in Europe, offering protection from the Eritrean regime’s policies, were sipping macchiatos at Asmara’s Cinema Roma cafe, preparing to return to Northern European capitals after vacationing with family. The appearance of a leisurely pace of life in Asmara contrasts to testimonies of abuse, especially in more remote and hard-to-reach areas.
On one cafe table, a 70-year-old Eritrean visiting from Stockholm drank coffee with his 17-year-old nephew from Asmara. They declined to give their names, saying they were “just ordinary Eritreans,” but the youth said he wanted to be a doctor and had plans to join a relative who is a surgeon in Germany. Inside the grand hall of the Cinema, a 1930s bar served Negroni cocktails to a group of young women, impeccably manicured, who spoke among themselves in German.
The IOM says the presence of wealthier migrant relatives spurs the exodus by reinforcing the notion that emigration is a path to freedom and wealth.
“It’s a dilemma for the government,” Mr. Ghebre Meskel said: “On the one hand, they come up with whatever stories they like to obtain asylum. But they support their families, there are remittances.”
A hundred miles south, some of the 113,000 refugees waiting in refugee camps at the start of their journeys to Europe said they felt little choice but to flee.
Life in the camp
In Adi-Harush camp, a patchwork of concrete huts and muddy tracks in a mountainous region, more than 20 residents spoke of their hope to escape Eritrea’s conscription and its economic and social breakdown. The camp is a staging ground for the trek to Europe, but refugees here have yet to confront the rigors of the journey ahead.
In the huts, groups gather to plot travel plans and track friends’ progress on cellphones. Several times a week, crowds pay a few cents to squeeze into corrugated steel shacks to watch one aspirational image of the prosperity of Europe on TV: the English soccer league.
Refugees say the camp houses a sophisticated network of Eritrean and Ethiopian smugglers who can organize journeys if residents have the money.
Three young Eritreans enjoy the view from the escarpment outside the Eritrean capital of Asmara. The country on the Horn of Africa is a poor land with a secretive government that imposes open-ended military conscription on youths, and about 1 in 50 Eritreans sought asylum in Europe between 2012 and mid-2015, according to the European Union statistics agency Eurostat.
Three young Eritreans enjoy the view from the escarpment outside the Eritrean capital of Asmara. The country on the Horn of Africa is a poor land with a secretive government that imposes open-ended military conscription on youths, and about 1 in 50 Eritreans sought asylum in Europe between 2012 and mid-2015, according to the European Union statistics agency Eurostat. Photo: Matina Stevis/The Wall Street Journal
Some who leave for Europe will never make it. The camp’s “mourning house” is where people go to cry and pray for friends or relatives who perished on the journey.
Billboards warn: “Illegal movement is like walking blindfolded. Let’s be aware, let’s be curious.” The Eritreans aren’t deterred, passing through the camps in ever-greater numbers, according to Ethiopian authorities.
Binyam, the 16-year old, said he arrived six months ago after fleeing poverty and forced conscription that had trapped his father for decades.
“For as long as I’ve known, he’s been a soldier…. Each year I saw him once, when he was allowed leave,” said Binyam, wearing a soccer jersey stained with food and dirt. “Now I will get to Europe to help my family.”
He said he walked through the night with a friend from his village, avoiding border guards to reach the Ethiopian frontier. His friend left the camp earlier this year for Sudan, the first stage of a dangerous journey across the Sahara and ultimately the Mediterranean.
Like many youngsters here, Binyam is unsure how he will pay for his journey and whether he will survive it: “I heard people are dying, being tortured or enslaved. I heard some die in the desert or the sea,“ he said. ”But some arrive. I hope for that.”
In a nearby hut, nine young men holding a traditional coffee ceremony, boiling the aromatic brew on coals, laid out their plans. Semere Ab said his aunt in Canada would use the hawala cash-transfer system to send smugglers $25,000. “There are smugglers in this camp. You pay them when you move from here,” he said. “In four months, I will go. We will all go together.” The boys nodded.
Ethiopian and Eritrean authorities accuse each other of profiting from the smuggling. The Ethiopian refugee agency called ARRA said it was planning to crack down. Local officials said they have arrested suspected smugglers.
Shewit Hadera, a 25-year-old refugee who works with unaccompanied Eritrean children in the care of the Norwegian Refugee Council, carries physical and emotional scars. Imprisoned in 2008 for trying to flee, he said, he was regularly tortured. He showed a leg covered in scar tissue he said was from being burned with boiling tea.
“They beat us at night, especially around midnight,” he said. “You couldn’t identify them because they wore masks.” He said his father was jailed for six months as punishment for his flight.
Eritrean officials conceded torture occurs in some prisons but said it wasn’t systematic. “Torture is not allowed. That does not mean it may not happen here and there,” said Mr. Ghebre Meskel, the information minister.
“Sometimes you will meet people who have fled here and they will have some marks. It can happen in some units,” he said. “But one has to draw a difference: It is not systematic, it’s not officially sanctioned, it’s not in the law.”

Drawings from Eritrean Children Depict Loss and Hope

Children at a refugee camp in Ethiopia are encouraged to draw as a way of processing their experiences.

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A drawing made in camp by nine-year-old Eyouel Teshome, a native of Tserona, Eritrea, shows an Eritrean flag outside a school and a boat to transport refugees to Europe. Eyouel’s sister crossed the Mediterranean and now lives in Germany, where he hopes to join her someday. Nichole Sobecki for The Wall Street Journal
Refugee children are encouraged to draw to process their experiences. When Eritrean children at a refugee camp in Ethiopia called Adi-Harush made drawings in school, 11-year-old Henok Mahri, above left, drew maps of Eritrea and Ethiopia and also wrote on his assignment: ‘I have no mother that gives me ...
Twelve-year-old Yosan Equbit, who came to the refugee camp four years ago from Dubuaruba, Eritrea, drew a group trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea by boat. Yosan’s sister fled to Europe across the Mediterranean and lives in Germany, while her father is currently in Libya waiting to cross. Children at the camp in Ethiopia are given materials and encouraged to draw as a way of processing their experiences. Nichole Sobecki for The Wall Street Journal
Eyouel Amanuel, 11, drew a boat on its way to Canada from Eritrea. Eyouel, who left the Eritrean capital of Asmara four years ago and has been in the Ethiopian refugee camp ever since, said he has heard that life in Canada is good and people there are happy. Nichole Sobecki for The Wall Street Journal
A drawing made by 10-year-old Nahom Selomun portrayed his father riding a donkey back from church while they were still living together in Moraguz, Eritrea. His father left the refugee camp in Ethiopia a month ago and made it to Sweden, while Nahom remains in the camp with two siblings. Nichole Sobecki for The Wall Street Journal
Natnael Equbay, 14, drew a smuggler sitting beside a truck waiting to take three Eritrean refugees across the border into Sudan. Natnael said his sister died at age 23 when a smuggling vehicle she was riding in across the border from Ethiopia to Sudan came under fire. The text of the boy’s drawing reads: ‘Let us stop trafficking.” Nichole Sobecki for The Wall Street Journal
Robel Amanuel, 12, drew two giraffes playing in front of “Shrek” from the animated film. Robel had never seen a movie before coming to the Ethiopian refugee camp from Senafa, Eritrea, three years ago. A business at the camp screen films for a small entrance fee. The text of Robel’s drawing reads: ‘Robel Amanuel, 100 years old.’ Nichole Sobecki for The Wall Street Journal
A drawing made in camp by nine-year-old Eyouel Teshome, a native of Tserona, Eritrea, shows an Eritrean flag outside a school and a boat to transport refugees to Europe. Eyouel’s sister crossed the Mediterranean and now lives in Germany, where he hopes to join her someday. Nichole Sobecki for The Wall Street Journal
Refugee children are encouraged to draw to process their experiences. When Eritrean children at a refugee camp in Ethiopia called Adi-Harush made drawings in school, 11-year-old Henok Mahri, above left, drew maps of Eritrea and Ethiopia and also wrote on his assignment: ‘I have no mother that gives me advice or guidance. You [his mother] have no child, and I am not your son. What good is it if I stand first in my class in a foreign country?’ Nichole Sobecki for The Wall Street Journal
Eritrea is seeing its future walk away. Relative to its population, Eritrea has the biggest group of refugees who are unaccompanied minors.
At Norwegian Refugee Council facilities, 540 unaccompanied children, as young as five, get basic schooling. Social workers say some resist school because it is what happens before one gets conscripted.
Not so for 11-year-old Henok Mahri, the top student in class. “I want to fly abroad and continue my education and help my family by getting a job,” he said, sitting on a white plastic chair, tiny legs dangling.
“I have no mother that gives me advice,” he wrote on a drawing he made of his mother back in Eritrea. “You are childless and I am not your son.”
Asked when he thought he would see her again, he paused for a moment.
“When God allows.”
A billboard set up by Ethiopian authorities in Adi-Harush camp for Eritreans who have fled their country warned about human smugglers, saying, ‘Illegal movement is like walking blindfolded. Let’s stay alert.’ The refugees, who want to get to Europe, aren’t deterred.
A billboard set up by Ethiopian authorities in Adi-Harush camp for Eritreans who have fled their country warned about human smugglers, saying, ‘Illegal movement is like walking blindfolded. Let’s stay alert.’ The refugees, who want to get to Europe, aren’t deterred.
Write to Matina Stevis at matina.stevis@wsj.com and Joe Parkinson at joe.parkinson@wsj.com
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Dog population Management and its Major Constraints in Eritrea

Dog population Management and its Major Constraints in Eritrea - FAO DOG POPULATION MANAGEMENT AND ITS MAJOR CHALLENGES IN ERITREA SOURCE http://www.fao.org/…/1_Dog_Population_Management_Eritrea_Gh….
AN OVERVIEW
Michael Kahsay Ghebremariam
Department of Veterinary Sciences, Hamelmalo Agricultural College, Hamelmalo, Eritrea

INTRODUCTION
Eritrea is located in the North-Eastern part of Africa. It shares borders with Sudan to the North and West, Ethiopia to the South, Djibouti to its South-Eastern extreme and faces the Red Sea to the East.

The current estimate of dog population in Eritrea may be as high as 50 000 to 60 000. However, no survey of dog population has been conducted to date. The dog population is highest in major cities. The dog population in Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, is estimated at roughly 15 000 – 18 000. Dogs are usually kept as guards for livestock in the rural areas, and a small number are kept as guards and pets in the major towns (Sharma and Adlakha, 2001)6). Stray and unvaccinated dogs are considered the main vectors of rabies in Eritrea. So far, there is no evidence of rabies in wildlife (e.g., jackals) in Eritrea, compared to other African countries, where they act as wild reservoir hosts. However the presence of honey badgers (Mellivora capensis), jackals and foxes in the vicinities of towns might require a study on rabies in wildlife. Rabies is one of the important zoonotic diseases in the country. The combination of numerous stray dogs in urban centers and a large non-vaccinated dog population in the rural areas is viewed as having facilitated the maintenance and spread of the rabies virus (Sharma and Adlakha, 2001)6).

Rabies is an ubiquitous disease that occurs almost allover the world. It is one of the classical diseases known to mankind. The ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romance illustrated the existence of rabies through drawings and sketches of mad dogs. The disease is important in dogs, cats, bats and wild mammals (Meslin et al., 1996)15). Transmission is almost always by introduction of virus-laden saliva into the tissues, normally through the bite of a rabid animal (Wunner, 1991)12). It has also been indicated that the virus can be transmitted through airborne route (Johnson, et al., 2006). Rabies is considered the 11th cause of human death among infectious diseases, as reviewed by Pedro, et al., (2006). Urban rabies especially has become the number one zoonosis. It is maintained and spread by the dog population, although diseased domestic animals can transmit it (McCurnin, 1998)1).


THE CHALLENGES

There is no valid estimate of the total dog population in Eritrea. Unwillingness and carelessness of dog owners to vaccinate their dogs is another major problem in rabies control. The number of stray dogs keeps increasing with time. The major causes for the increase in the number of stray dog population in major urban areas are postulated as the following:

availability of leftover foods, offal, etc, from restaurants, hospitals, slaughterhouses, food processing plants, etc.
the practice of backyard slaughter of animals without proper disposal of the offal and inedible parts of the carcass,
improper disposal of garbage (easily scavenged by dogs),
compassion of kids for dogs, tendency to feed and make food available to stray dogs,
improper disposal of dead animals, in most cases, horses ,
the high survival skills, strength, wild and aggressive behavior of stray dogs make the control difficult,
absence of coordinated communication to raise rabies awareness among the population,
absence of safe, humane and effective ways of catching and restraining of dogs,
not all owned dogs are registered and vaccinated.

CONCLUSION

The absence of a valid estimate of the dog population is becoming a major cause of low distribution, coverage and delay in the vaccination program. The government vaccinates owned dogs every year and eliminates stray dogs through killing. However, not all dog owners are willing to vaccinate their dogs. Moreover, the elimination of stray dogs through killing does not seem to be effective as the space (territory) is immediately taken over by dogs coming from other areas, giving them more space and food to survive and reproduce drastically and thus repopulating the area in a very short amount of time.

Children’s lack of awareness is another serious problem for controlling dog population in the country. There is some awareness of the community about the potential danger of rabies from unvaccinated dogs. However, they are totally unaware of many more dangerous diseases stray dogs might carry, be they parasitic, bacterial or viral with zoonotic characteristics.
There is no effective, safe and humane method of catching and restraining of stray dogs in the country. Moreover, catching stray dogs is difficult because of their aggressive behavior.

THE WAY FORWARD

The main objective of rabies control is to protect human health and prevent economic losses. To have a sustainable stray dog population and rabies control, an integrated approach is required. These might include vaccination, stray dog population control through humane means (breeding control), efficient reporting, reliable diagnostic system, and public awareness. Proper disposal of dead animals, organs/or carcasses, and garbage is essential. Backyard slaughter of animals has to be controlled. The phenomenon of rabies has to be included in children’s formal education. The Ministry of Agriculture, the Veterinary Services, the Ministry of Health, Hamelmalo Agricultural College, have to be able to provide different information materials aimed at children and the public at large. These awareness-building materials regarding rabies and other dog diseases could be in the form of posters, leaflets, etc. The role of news papers, radio and television is very significant in this regard. To achieve the aforementioned goals, a dog population survey should be given priority. The survey might include data on dog numbers, location, sex, age, registration and vaccination status etc.

It is acknowledged that adequate funding, trained manpower, and infrastructure will be required for the program to succeed.


REFERENCES

Johnson N, Phillpotts R, Fooks AR. 2006. Airborne transmission of lyssa viruses. J. Medical Microbiology, (6): 785-90

Meslin F.-X., Kaplan M.M., Koprowski H.1996. Laboratory Techniques in Rabies, 4th edition, W.H.O., Geneva.


McCurnin, M.Dennis.1998. Clinical Textbook for Veterinary Technicians, U.S.A., 4th edition. W.B. Samders Company. Pp 144,747.

Pedro Carniel Junior, Armando Moraes Ventura, and Edison Luiz Durigon. 2006. Digoxigenin-labeled probe for rabies virus nucleoprotein gene detection. Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical 39(2):159-162.

Sharma, S.N. and Adlakha, S.C. 2001.Textbook of Veterinary Virology. New Delhi. Vikas publishing house pvt ltd. Pp313-318.

Wunner W.H. 1991. The chemical composition and molecular structure of rabies viruses. In: G. M. Baer (Ed.). The Natural History of Rabies. (pp. 31-67). Boca Raton, FL:CRCPress.