Most people have never heard of Eritrea.
It’s a small country on the Horn of Africa, next to Ethiopia and Sudan, with a population smaller than some major cities. And yet, it is home to one of the harshest dictatorships in the world—often compared to North Korea for its extreme isolation, mandatory military service, and total control over daily life.

I realized how invisible this crisis is when I once saw a small protest calling for freedom in Eritrea. There were only a handful of people, holding signs about human rights abuses that most passers-by didn’t recognize. Many people walking by didn’t know where Eritrea was, or why people were risking their safety even by speaking about it.

We hear a lot about global tragedies, but Eritrea’s suffering barely makes headlines.
No celebrity campaigns, no mainstream news panels, no political urgency. Just a quiet dictatorship, ruling over a population with almost no outside support.

Eritrea gained independence in 1993 after a long war with Ethiopia. At the time, people hoped it would become democratic and stable. Instead, the president, Isaias Afwerki,........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)