Gedab News has learned that at least six players from the National Eritrean Football Team announced their defection immediately after the game they played today.

The players are believed to have decided to defect due to the worsening human right violations and oppressions in Eritrea.

The Eritrean National Team was in Angola to play against the Angolan National team in  a match for the third round of Group F  for access to the African Cup of Nations (CAN-2008) which is scheduled to be held in Ghana.

Amnesty International, Reporters Without Borders, Human Right Watch and other entities have reported extensively about human right abuses in Eritrea.  In its 2007 report, the US State Department issued a report about the situation in Eritrea accusing the government of committing “numerous serious abuses”.

The abuses against Eritrea's youth include: snatching them from the warmth of their homes early to refer them to a military camp in their teens; compulsory conscription (the so-called "national service") for undetermined period where back-breaking manual labor for government construction works including building villas for generals is the daily requirement; torture such as "Jesus Christ" and "helicopter" for minor infractions and orders to shoot on sight anybody leaving their posts without permission. 

The "national service" is supposed to be 18 months but many Eritreans have been serving without break since 1998.  Even those who have fulfilled their obligations and been released are immediately re-enlisted whenever the government wants to demonstrate control.