Eritrea cracked down on Christians ahead of the country’s Independence Day on 24 May with arrests of more than 140 Christians who were meeting in private in the capital Asmara.
Fourteen children were among the 141 detained, after the authorities raided a Christian gathering in Mai Temenai. The streets were filled with police and secret police trying to prevent protests.
As well as carrying out arrests, the author-ities in Eritrea have shut down social media.
Dictatorship
Eritrea is a one-party dictatorship, which has been ruled over by President Isaias Afwerki since 1993. The nation had been in a state of war with neighbouring Ethiopia for 30 years. Even though the two countries signed a peace deal in July 2018, hopes that rapprochement with Ethiopia would lead to a freedom dividend have proved unfounded.
The country has been described as the North Korea of Africa. It is one of the poorest on the continent. Around 1.5 million Eritreans have fled. This growing diaspora is becoming increasingly vocal in its demands for religious and human rights freedoms, and Christians inside the country are growing bolder.
Torture
In 2002, Eritrea outlawed many Christian denominations and shut down Evangelical and Pentecostal churches. Christians who worship in unregistered churches are regarded as enemies of the state. Many Christians are jailed indefinitely without charge or going to trial. Some are kept in shipping containers, where they are exposed to the searing desert heat by day and cold by night. Some are beaten and tortured to try to force them to renounce their faith.
Crucifixion
Dawit, an Eritrean refugee, said: ‘I was arrested because of my Christian faith. Each night I had to sleep on the floor with my arms and feet tied together tightly, they called it the Number 8.’ He said his legs were doubled up behind his back and lashed to his wrists. Sometimes prisoners are tied up and hanged from trees. One form of hanging is known as the Jesus Christ, because it looks like a crucifix.
A UN human rights commission noted attacks on Protestants and Pentecostals were ‘part of a diligently planned policy of the government’.
