Mr. Tomas Tewelde, Eritrea's First Secretary to the diplomatic mission in Kenya, is presumed to have abandoned the PFDJ government and has sought political asylum in the USA.  This is the third loss for Eritrea�s Embassy in Kenya.

On April 2004,  Eritrea�s Consul General to Kenya, "Keshi" Mussie, was recalled for a meeting to Eritrea and arrested upon arrival. Exactly a year earlier, in April 2003, Mr. Teweldemedhin Tesfamariam who, then as the Deputy Ambassador to Kenya and a PFDJ loyalist had conducted countless interviews accusing his own colleagues of being enemy agents, was also recalled for a meeting and then arrested. The whereabouts and the reason for the arrest of the two officials is still unknown.

On April 24, Gedab News reported that diplomats and support staff were recalled to Eritrea because of the urgent need to cut back expenditures due to budgetary crisis facing the government. Tomas was one of those recalled back to Eritrea. Several others are believed to have disappeared elsewhere and haven�t heeded the recall order.

Background

The Eritrean Ambassador to Kenya is Mr. Mohammed Ali Omero, one of the founders of the Popular Liberation Forces (PLF) (1970), which eventually became the EPLF, the precursor to the PFDJ.  Given his previous contribution, his posting as ambassador to Kenya is considered by many as punitive act by President Isaias Afwerki.

Tomas is a veteran of the armed struggle who joined the EPLF around 1975. After Eritrea�s independence, he served in the foreign relations department of the National Union of Eritrean Youth & Students (NUEYS) whose Chief, Muhyeddin Shengeb, also abandoned the PFDJ and currently lives in the USA after applying for political asylum.