"Governments must either open up the business sector to enable people to make a livable wage or, failing that, they must open up their borders for their citizens to seek their bounty elsewhere."  This is the message that Eritrean citizens, particularly frustrated parents who have been witnessing their childrens wasted in front of their eyes, have been giving officials of the ruling party, PFDJ, at the various townhall meetings it is conducting. The PFDJ has provided a familiar response: arrest all the complainants.  

It hasn’t arrested all the complainants—it has done so only in those instances when the complainants were a minority in a given locality.  

In the Akeleguzay region, which is now known as Debub (Southern Zone), dozens of Eritrean elders from the Saho tribe have been arrested for airing this view. The arrested include the following: 

Sheikh Siraj Ona Ali                     Imam of Senafe mosque
Mohammed Saleh Abdella             Director of Islamic Institute and Awqaf in Senafe
Ustaz Suleiman Ali                      A school teacher & Senafe Awqaf Board member.
Pasha Mohammed Suleiman          A notable from Senafe
Ahmed Sheikh Ismael                  A notable and a merchant in Senafe
Mohammed Kghieri Haj Mussa       a resident of Adi Kieh
Ibrahim Abdella                          a resident of Adi Keieh
Osman Mahmoud Adem               a resident of Adi Kieh
Abdella Adnan Qadi Ali                a resident of Adi Kieh

If the arrest of the nearly 40 individuals were meant to ensure silent compliance, they don’t seem to have achieved their goal as people are openly speaking out about the ruling party’s maladministration. "We are just tired of being afraid," said a source, contacted by Gedab News.

The regime has arrested a few elders in Keren and Agordat.

THE AUDACITY OF THE MIDDLE MIDDLE MEN

Meanwhile, the ruling party’s elite, particularly those in the armed forces, continue to find ever-new ways of profiting from the misery of Eritrea’s youth. The most lucrative business is still smuggling Eritrean youth (especially conscripts) across the borders to Sudan and Ethiopia.   

This business has now gone global: the corrupt individuals have set up a network of representatives in major cities around the world where Eritreans reside. The middle-men in Diaspora act on behalf of the smugglers and collect the payments – in much the same way that the Hawala business works.  Smuggling a person from Eritrea across the border to Sudan or Ethiopia costs $3000 to $4,000 (USD). If the person who is being smuggled out is in jail, there is an extra $2,000 USD, for his release, bringing the total to $5,000 to $6,000. 

Given the volume involved, this is the kind of business that has made a few well-positioned PFDJ sharks millionaires.  

Another ring operates in Kessela, Sudan where people are smuggled out of Eritrea and are detained in different places (under the custody of the police station) until the price for the smuggling is paid by their relatives who reside abroad. This ring is operating with the full cooperation of members of the Sudanese security officers who share the spoils.