In the opening session of the PFDJ Central Office meeting of April 12-13, President Isaias Afwerki informed the senior officials of the party that the inevitability of war with Ethiopia is “a firm conclusion that we have reached.”  This conclusion, he explained, is based on “our assessment that Ethiopia harbors expansionist ambitions and will act on them.”  He then asked the assembled senior officials “should we, knowing this, give them the opportunity to strike first?”  Even if one does not believe war is imminent, continued the president, “hijji win aydeqesnan” [“we are not content”] with the no-war no-peace situation.”  The assembled officials should know, he explained, that the 2005-2006 national budget and programs are going to be designed with the assumption that there will be war.  An informed source tells Gedab News that the president “only fell short of declaring a war.”

This opening statement was then followed by the establishment of discussion groups headed by ministers and generals, but the tone had already been set by the president.  In these meetings, there was an “air of dread and apprehensiveness” with “everyone meekly echoing the president’s assessment.”  According to our sources, the level of discourse was so muted that the closest the participants even came to challenging the president’s assessment was when the group chaired by Brigadier General Tekle Manjos questioned the war-preparedness of Eritrea’s Defense Forces.

All able-bodied residents of Senafe have been instructed to dig trenches and, according to our source, with the message of “war is inevitable” being carried at the regional levels throughout the nation, a sense of foreboding has engulfed Eritrea.