It is Independence Day week in Eritrea, and the regime is commemorating it with an annual tradition—rounding up the youth. 

Eight brigades, four each from Senafe and Assab, have been summoned to Asmara to control the “jungle in Asmara.”  The chief task of the brigades is to round up youngsters who fall under one of two categories: the koblelti—those who are registered for national service but take a leave of absence without permission from their supervisors—and the lieli Edme—those who are over the age of conscription but have not voluntarily signed up. 

Regardless of whether the youth have the legal right to be on the streets or not, they are rounded up and taken to the detention center until their status is verified. This policy of ksab zxare—pending verification—nets in all youth, including those as young as ten years old. 

In addition to the youth, the government of Eritrea is rounding up all Ethiopians, regardless of their age.  Some of the Ethiopian women who were rounded up had to leave their dependent children unattended at their homes. 

Women and underage children are being held at the Enda Seal (TB Center) detention center at Maytemenay. 
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Forlorn parents are roaming the various detention centers looking for their children.

Desertion 

The Eritrean government’s policy on deserters is to hunt them down and shoot them. Lately, the government is considering revising its policy because those who are dispatched to hunt down the deserters are also deserting. 

The main cause for the desertion is the hardship of life in the military. 

Due to food shortages, the government is improvising with meshela bread, an unchewable loaf, which is given in small rations.  To get the so-called memaqerti (onions, tomatoes, cooking oil, etc), the soldiers have to pay 50 nakfa, which is difficult for many. The government has also significantly accelerated the pace and magnified the scope of the military training: those enlisted are constantly marching, lifting and moving--Egri guezo, political education, Maetot, Akeba, etc.  

The combination of the two--malnutrition and exhaustion--is resulting in anemic soldiers where fainting is a common sight. This is what is accounting for the desertion, with Eritreans crossing the border to Sudan and Ethiopia daily, by the dozens.

Asked about Eritrea's high rate of migration--one of the highest in the world--President Isaias Afwerki told Reuters that it was all due to a conspiracy hatched by the CIA.