BY SOPHIA TESFAMARIAM | SHABAIT The late Samuel Mahaffy once wrote that “the effort to invisibilise countries like Eritrea grows from an international strategy to main power and control over others. It perpetuates hegemonic discourse, which is of course is not really discourse at all”. He lived long enough to see the misrepresentation of Eritrea. […]
Continue ReadingBY SOPHIA TESFAMARIAM Disinformation about Eritrea has become a cottage industry among Eritrea’s quislings and the minority regime in Ethiopia. Not a single week goes by without some kind of mention of Eritrea by the regime, its self-serving think tanks and the Addis based international media, who have now become extensions of its misinformation campaigns.
Continue ReadingBY SOPHIA TESFAMARIAM Ethiopia is once again in deep crisis, threatening to implode under the weight of the regime’s diplomatic, economic, political and military corruption. After nationwide protests that lasted over a year, the regime imposed a draconian State of Emergency Declaration and imprisoned over 20,000 Ethiopians for protesting its rule, after hundreds were killed […]
Continue ReadingBY SOPHIA TESFAMARIAM At a time when most of Europe is grappling with its migrant crisis, the headlines on Eritrea are increasingly less acerbic. A report by the Regional Mixed Migration Secretariat (RMMS) of February 9 last month reads: “…While the total number of migrants and refugees arriving in Italy in 2016 hit a record, […]
Continue ReadingBy Sophia Tesfamariam, The term “fake news” is not new, but it was Donald Trump, during his first press conference that the term “fake news” broke out of media discussions and into the mainstream. “You are fake news!” he pointed at CNN’s Jim Acosta. The President has been calling out major media outlets several times […]
Continue Reading“… the UN’s power derives primarily from its ability to persuade rather than its ability to coerce; that is, its normative power and legitimacy derive from the view that it is ‘above politics’ and is representative of the international community… ” - (Michael Bennett) By Sophia Tesfamariam, Last week was emotionally charged for Eritreans around […]
Continue ReadingBy Sophia Tesfamariam, As an Eritrean American who has closely followed developments in the Horn region and knows a little bit about the political machinations involved, I was sorry to see Navi Pillay, former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights succumbing to US pressure by singling out Eritrea for rebuke when she knows full […]
Continue ReadingBy Sophia Tesfamariam, Sheila Keetharuth, the UN Special Rapporteur on Eritrea, has engaged in activities that constitute a flagrant abuse of her mandate and continues to act with blatant violation of the principles of impartiality, non-selectivity and objectivity that govern the work of Special Rapporteurs, thus breaching the equality principles of the Charter of the […]
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