Browsing: Eritrea

Human Rights Watch 2025
  • Authorities across Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Sudan harassed activists and government critics in spirited attempt to suppress dissent in 2024.
  • Human Rights Watch says harassment, intimidation, and arrests of journalists, human rights defenders, and opposition figures intensified.
  • In Kenya, senior government officials including President William Ruto threatened the courts for making decisions unfavourable to his administration.

Millions of civilians across countries in East Africa bore the brunt of human rights violations orchestrated by either government security organs or armed groups in 2024, further deteriorating the region’s respect for human rights, a new report by Washington-based Human Rights Watch states.

According to the group’s World Report 2025, authorities in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia and South Sudan continued to harass activists and government critics in their spirited attempt to suppress dissent during the year under review.

“Armed forces and armed groups in Sudan and Ethiopia have deliberately targeted civilians and …

  • Algeria tops countries holding airlines’ blocked funds in Africa at $261 million followed by countries within the XAF Zone that are trapping $140 million.
  • Ethiopia has $115 million in blocked funds for airlines while its neighbour Eritrea is sitting on $75 million.
  • Zimbabwe closes the top five countries with blocked funds at $69 million.

Airlines across the world continue to struggle to repatriate their profits, with several African countries accounting for the bulk of blocked funds at $880 million. This amount, which represents 52 percent of the total $1.68 billion blocked funds globally continues to act as a hindrance to the growth of the industry post-Covid-19 fallout.

Data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has single out Algeria, the XAF Zone, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Zimbabwe as the top five countries in Africa where airlines are struggling to repatriate their profits.

Across Africa, Algeria tops among …

Eritrea’s debt stands at 175 per cent of its GDP.

This is very high for the agriculture-based economy.

Eritrea is an outlier on the African continent. Unfortunately for the Horn of Africa country, it is not for good reasons. The nation has held on to a counterproductive form of government which has retrogressed the country economically and kept its people in poverty.

The country maintains a political system which is largely autocratic in nature and is not a democracy by any stretch of the imagination. The country was at war with Ethiopia and only recently managed to broker a peace deal which is no more than a truce to fight another day.

  • Eritrea has a sovereign debt load that is nearly double the size of its GDP according to the World Bank and the IMF.
  • The country has an archaic system of governance and is for that reason a negative