Rob✨

[Rob✨ @HagerawiRob4]

#Eritrea 🇪🇷🇪🇷🇪🇷

[Yemane G. Meskel 🇪🇷 @hawelti]

Good Read: Spotlight - Developing Tourism in Eritrea; by Simon Weldemikael

*Eritrea's geographic location, pristine beaches, rich cultural and archeaological heritage...make it ideal for the development of tourism.
*Indeed, the pleasant climate, warm and clean waters of the Red Sea, about 350 offshore islands along with their diversity of terrestrial and marine animals are major sources of tourism that Eritrea is endowed with.
*The scenic beauty from the high ground of above 3,000 meters to the depression of 100 meters below sea level is another element of tourist attraction. One can experience "three seasons in two-hours" in the mesmerizing road travel from highland Asmara to the coastal city of Massawa.
*Reason why the Government continues to take important steps to develop the tourism industry so as to contribute to rapid and sustainable economic growth of the country in spite of adverse externalities that stem from periodic and imposed wars and unwarranted sanctions.

https://t.co/Uin2RaHcUs

[FikreJesus, PhD @FikreJesus]

🇪🇷🇪🇷🌳🌳🌴🌴
👍👍👍

Over 1.4 million tree seedlings to be planted across the next 5 weeks as part of the "student summer greening campaign."

[Yemane G. Meskel 🇪🇷 @hawelti]

Good Read - Date Palm Production in Eritrea: Current Status and Way Forward
Public Relations Office, Ministry of Agriculture

*"...Eritrea possesses an extensive coastline stretching from Ras Qeisar to Ras Dumera, providing highly suitable agro-ecological conditions for date palm cultivation. To utilize this valuable natural resource for the benefit of the people, the Ministry of Agriculture has launched a large-scale Date Palm Development Project along the coastal areas of both the Northern Red Sea and Southern Red Sea Regions. To date, approximately 50,000 date palm seedlings have been planted".

*"...The Ministry plans to significantly expand this Date Palm Cultivation Project along the Red Sea coastal areas. Under the Agriculture and Food Development Strategy, the objective is to increase the number of planted date palms to approximately one million trees by 2030–2031. Successful implemen­tation of this program will substan­tially increase domestic date produc­tion and enable Eritrea to become a recognized producer of quality dates while generating considerable environmental and socio-economic benefits".

https://t.co/0XGC6ktFiB

[Yemane G. Meskel 🇪🇷 @hawelti]

In characteristic fashion, the Potemkin Party's erratic political pendulum is yet again swinging between two extreme positions:
i) A provocative and aggressive posturing that has been accompanied, for over two years now, by incessant saber-rattling to "acquire sovereign access to the sea", on the one hand;
ii) Simultaneous portrayal of itself as the "aggrieved party" and a "hapless victim of internal and external conspiracies", on the other.

This was indeed the gist of the PM's rambling at the House of Peoples Representatives earlier today.

Hyperbole and associated drama aside, the stubborn facts remain the same.

The sad truth is: the unnecessary and avoidable tensions in the region have and continue to be stoked by the very reckless policies of the Potemkin Party. For brief illustrations:

1. The palpable friction with the Sudan squarely emanates from the Potemkin Party's dangerous involvement in the conflict in the Sudan by hosting, under the bidding of certain extraneous forces, a secret military camp and base for the RSF in the Benishangul-Gumuz region of Ethiopia. The evidence, which is overwhelming, is already in the public domain.
2. The Potemkin Party's stealthily signed MOU with Somaliland a couple of years ago was another illicit and reckless misstep that aroused consternation in the region as a whole. This act remains in flagrant violation of the AU and IGAD Constitutive Acts as well as fundamental tenets of international law on sovereignty and territorial integrity of States.
3. The Potemkin Party has pursued, for over two and half years now, a toxic and revisionist policy against Eritrea by openly threatening to invade/acquire by any means, its Assab port and coastal areas for what it terms as "sovereign access to the sea".
4. In the event, its frequent reference to "conspiratorial forces disappointed by, and bent on, scuttling the Pretoria Agreement" is as disingenuous as it is untenable. In as far as Eritrea is concerned, the Pretoria Agreement is a purely Ethiopian affair. Let us also recall - the beans have been spilled now by Getachew Redda's multiple confessions - that the Potemkin Party was scheming against Eritrea (Djibouti and Seychelles events) months before the negotiations and signature of the Pretoria Agreement.

In a nutshell, the quest for enduring regional peace and stability that the peoples of the Horn of Africa deeply cherish and deserve has been, and continues to be, jeopardized by the Potemkin Party's delusional policies.
https://t.co/2MuR9MZUna

[Embassy of Eritrea to Ethiopia PM to AU & ECA @ERIEMBAET]

Key message from the briefing by H.E Osman Saleh Foreign Minister of the State of Eritrea on the #UNHRC process to the foreign diplomatic community in #Eritrea.

[Ghideon Musa @GhideonMusa]

ኣቮካዶ ፍርያት ሃገርና !
The Eritrean Crops and Livestock Corporation (ECLC) is successfully harvesting avocados. At the Halhale Project now have over 10,000 avocado trees. They’re growing them together with coffee and olives, turning the land into productive farms.
@MezmurBest #Eritrea 🥑😋 🇪🇷

[Yemane G. Meskel 🇪🇷 @hawelti]

The Potemkin Party is apparently seething under extreme desperation. It must indeed be at its lowest point; at the end of its tether so to speak!

How else can one explain the monotonous, 35-minute long diatribe of lies and hollow allegations against Eritrea peddled by mercurial Getachew Reda (nominally, Adivsor to the Prime Minister) that was broadcast yesterday by the Ethiopian Broadcast Corporation (EBC) and other domestic media outlets.

If the unhinged Getachew Reda is taken as a credible political analyst and a reference point, then the numerous insolent and outrageous remarks that he had made on various Tigrayan TV outlets, as well as his X Account, about the Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed during the war in the Tigray Region must be accorded due credibility too.

Indeed, some of his grotesquely disparaging statements on Abiy Ahmed and the Ethiopian army include:

- "Abiy Ahmed is a political pigmy. Had Ethiopia been a normal country, he would have long been confined to a mental institution or spiritual cites of healing for the deranged";
- "Abiy Ahmed is delusional enough to believe and openly brag that his mother had told him, when he was seven years old, that she saw him, in her dream, being crowned as a King";
-" Abiy Ahmed is the epitome and example of little men who come to power by some accident of history and who subsequently create huge catastrophes";
-"Abiy Ahmed cannot lead a nation without reverting to endless deceptions";
- "He (Abiy Ahmed) has literally no education...but you cannot ask him how he claims that he has a PhD as he does not give you time for reasonable discourse";
- "Abiy Ahmed is the textbook example of national treason. As such, he has no moral high ground to speak about sovereignty";
- "Abiy Ahmed is a toxic weed that has grown in this nation";
- " (General) Birhanu Jula and others are not leading a capable army. They have lost the little military knowledge they had and are sheepishly taking orders from this mad leader. This anti-people army, which is blindly implementing Abiy Ahmed's war agenda, is entailing massive deaths among the civilian population and the youth"...etc...

The rudderless Getachew Reda is indeed prone to making whimsical and contradictory statements on almost any issue depending on his unstable moods and ever-shifting political affiliations. Recently, as he struck an opportunistic alliance with the Federal Government and its PM on whom he was heaping endless insults, he has began to shamelessly disavow the political beliefs he had held for decades.

In a recent interview, he quipped (referring to his old comrades): "There are many people who maintain that Tigray should be an independent nation. I also mull about that concept whenever I am tipsy!"

His close associates confide that Getachew is tipsy or drunk from the late afternoon to the wee morning hours almost on a daily basis... This has in fact earned him the moniker :"Vodakchew".

On a more sober note, how can one give serious weight to the excesses and irresponsible utterances of this political vagabond.

In the event, there is no point in responding to all the vitriol that he has floated against Eritrea in his interview yesterday.

We will thus focus on one fallacy: his preposterous assertion that "Eritrea was created, by conspiratorial forces, as an independent State in order to weaken and destroy Ethiopia".

This spurious and revisionist claim is, of course, utterly false and deliberately peddled to rationalize and advance the Potemkin Party's wicked domestic agenda of agitation and mobilization for war.

History otherwise attests to these indelible facts:

1. Eritrea was denied its inalienable right of decolonization in the late 1940s and "federated" with Ethiopia only because the US and other powers gave precedence to their perceived geopolitical interests.
2. The international community kept mum, again for similar political calculus, when the Ethiopian government unilaterally abrogated the "Federal Act" and annexed Eritrea in November 1962.
3. The Eritrean people and nation had to shoulder the heavy burden of national liberation for thirty long years and pay huge and unparalleled sacrifices. Throughout this period, virtually the whole world showed unconscionable apathy by failing to recognize and extend moral and material support to Eritrea's legitimate war of national liberation. In the meantime, Ethiopia which was ruled by the Emperor and the military junta that toppled him continued to receive massive military, economic and political support from diverse countries - the US, USSR, European Countries, Israel, several Arab and Asian countries, Cuba etc..
4. The same pattern continued at various critical junctures in Eritrea's post independence period. The failure to take meaningful action against the Ethiopian regime when it reneged on its treaty obligations - essentially worked out under the facilitation of the the US, the EU, the UN and the OAU - and rejected the EEBC Arbitral Award to occupy sovereign Eritrean territories for almost two decades is a glaring illustration of the tendency of major powers, and the international community at large, to sacrifice legality and justice on the altar of narrow interests.
5. In all these decades, including in these critical times when the current regime is stoking the flames of war through its reckless agenda of "sovereign access to the sea", the "intensive care" accorded to Ethiopia has not diminished in any way. The IMF's 3 billion financial bailout that is underway; the EU's massive assistance, including recent budgetary assistance; individual bilateral support to Ethiopia from European, Asian, Middle Eastern countries...etc. corroborate this fact.
6. Indeed, by some accounts, Ethiopia has been the beneficiary of an aggregate 114 billion US dollars in the past three decades from multilateral and bilateral assistance. This pattern of huge and burgeoning assistance does not reek of, and cannot be misconstrued, by any stretch of imagination, as "some entrenched conspiracy to weaken and destroy Ethiopia".

In brief, and as noted earlier, Getachew Reda's "analysis" can hardly be taken seriously on any subject. For the Potemkin Party to stoop too low to use his deranged analysis for "popular mobilization" only accentuates its utter desperation.

[Yemane G. Meskel 🇪🇷 @hawelti]

ኣብ ኤርትራ ዝመደበሮም ኣምባሳደራትን ዲፕሎማሰኛታትን፡ ብምኽንያት ዕረፍቲ ሓርበኛ ወይዘሮ ኣዳነሽ በርሀ፡ ሎሚ ኣብ ሰዓታት ቅድሚ-ቕትሪ ኣብ ቦታ ሓዘን ብምብጻሕ፡ ንፕረዚደንት ኢሳይያስ ኣፈወርቂን መላእ ስድራቤትን፡ ናይ ጽንዓት ይሃብኩም መግለጺታቶም ኣቕሪቦም።

[Yemane G. Meskel 🇪🇷 @hawelti]

AlJazeera - Ethiopia is not being ‘dragged into war';
by Mr. Ali Ibrahim Ahmed, #Eritrea's Ambassador to Qatar

*"... The recent opinion article by senior Ethiopian officials Redwan Hussein and Getachew Reda, published on Al Jazeera English’s website, attempts to portray Ethiopia as an innocent victim being reluctantly 'dragged' into conflict by external actors. In doing so, the piece seeks to absolve the ruling Prosperity Party of responsibility for Ethiopia’s mounting domestic crises".

*"...More dangerously, this narrative serves as a diplomatic smoke screen designed to normalize the unprovoked hostility, state-sponsored inflammatory rhetoric and aggressive military mobilizations that the Ethiopian government has directed towards Eritrea since late 2023".

*"...This coordinated campaign seeks to normalize the idea that colonial boundaries in the Horn of Africa are negotiable in order to attempt to challenge inviolable principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity that have long underpinned regional stability".

*"...The broader pattern extends beyond Eritrea. Ethiopia’s recent foreign policy conduct has increasingly generated tensions with several neighboring states. The Memorandum of Understanding signed with Somaliland, which sought access to coastal territory without the consent of Somalia’s central government, triggered a major diplomatic crisis and raised serious questions regarding respect for established principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity".

*"...Similarly, Ethiopia has repeatedly pursued interventionist policies in neighboring conflicts in the quest for short-term geopolitical objectives. Whether in Somalia, Sudan or elsewhere, Addis Ababa’s reckless regional agenda of expansionism has contributed significantly to regional mistrust and destabilization".

https://t.co/MwqtJQeYx2 via @AJEnglish

[Yemane G. Meskel 🇪🇷 @hawelti]

ብዕረፍቲ ክብርቲ ወላዲቶም ሓርበኛ ወይዘሮ ኣዳነሽ በርሀ፡ ንፕረዚደንት ኢሳይያስ ኣፈወርቂ ምስ ኩሎም ኣሕዋቱን ስድራቤትን፡ ጽንዓት ይሃብኩም ንብል።
https://t.co/zik3gaBwO6

[Yemane G. Meskel 🇪🇷 @hawelti]

Good Read - The Mesob: Testament to the Artistry, Unity, and Grace of Eritrean Women; by Kidane Shimendi

*"...the Mesob anchors the time-honored cultural practice of communal dining; a tradition through which generations of Eritreans have fostered mutual respect, deep affection, and unbreakable social bonds. This practice of eating together from a single, shared platter is vibrant and alive across all nine of Eritrea’s ethnic groups, each possessing its own beautiful term for this focal point of hospitality: Tigrinya: Meadi (መኣዲ), Tigre: Metaagal, Saho: Maddi, Bilen: Meddira or Gbar, Kunama: Gonta or Nada Gonta, Nara: Gaan, Bidawyet (Hadendowa): Tooda, Afar: Galadda, Rashaida (Arabic): Maida".

*"...The Mesob is far more than a woven basket; it is a monument to the spirit of Eritrea. Through its captivating geometry, its rich national colors, and the nourishing meals served from its crown, it reflects the generosity, intellect, and love of the women who craft it. It is a magnificent testament to a national heritage engraved with beauty. Let us all honor, celebrate, and preserve the brilliant artistic legacy of Eritrea’s women".
https://t.co/JWNszvy7ah

[Yemane G. Meskel 🇪🇷 @hawelti]

Eritrea's National Service seems to be on the spotlight again by certain quarters.

The "new interest" does not stem from some "benevolent concern" for Eritrea. On the contrary, it is floated, purely and simply, in order to weaponize it as a "convenient" whiplash or cudgel for their unwarranted and malicious policies of perennial witch-hunting and harassment.

Indeed, the logic is simple and straight forward.

Countries and international institutions that were complicit in, or that kept mum, at critical junctures of Eritrea's modern history; when its decolonization rights were compromised to mollify the overriding geopolitical interests of major powers; when they left it to its own devices during the three decades of its long and arduous liberation struggle; who relapsed to their traditional position of hostility or apathy even after independence when successive Ethiopian regimes waged illicit wars, and are still contemplating reckless agendas, of territorial irredentism.. etc. have no legal or moral authority to comment on Eritrea's defense architecture.

Truth is international partnership is, and must be, a two-way street. Those who have traditionally abandoned Eritrea during its cyclical ordeals cannot pose as "good-faith" partners to offer unsolicited "advice" on its defense architecture.

The facts are otherwise unambivalent and crystal clear:

1. First off, demobilization is not a new or novel concept to Eritrea. The GOE embarked, on its own volition, on a demobilization programme in 1992, immediately after independence, to reduce the size of the 100,000-strong army of freedom fighters by 65%. The military doctrine at the time was to maintain a small professional army of 35,000 that would be supplemented by a reserve army (National Service) for reasons of contingency in the event of some grave external threat to the nation.
2. In this perspective, National Service was introduced in the context of this military doctrine. It was and remains limited to 18 months by law. And this was the operational modality until the war of aggression that was unleashed by Ethiopia in 1998 under the false pretext of a border dispute.
3. The GOE again embarked on a much more expansive Demobilization Programme in 2001 pursuant to the signing of the Algiers Agreement. The second Demobilization Programme had various training and reinsertion components as it was also funded by Eritrea's international partners including the World Bank, the European Union and bilateral funds. More than 105,000 National Service members were demobilized in this programme that continued until 2007. But it was ultimately shelved as the Ethiopian regime continued to renege on its treaty obligations; occupy, with impunity, sovereign Eritrean territories including Badme; and further pursued a hostile policy of perpetual confrontation.
4. The mindset of the current Ethiopian regime remains, in many respects, a continuation and aggravation of the misguided and deplorable policies of aggression of its predecessors.
4. But even during these trying and difficult times, the GOE has, and continues to take, various measures to mitigate the shared burden of the National Service. The measures adopted range from introduction of new and much higher Civil Service Salary Scale to deployment of the overwhelming majority of NS members to the public sector.
5. In the event, the new smear campaign on the National Service peddled by certain quarters, and its timing, only amplify a malicious ulterior agenda that has nothing to do with the welfare of the Eritrean people and/or the pursuit of regional peace and security.

[Yemane G. Meskel 🇪🇷 @hawelti]

Candle Vigil Procession yesterday evening in Asmara in solemn remembrance of Martyrs Day. Similar and other various activities held throughout the nation.

ሃገር ኣብ ረዚን ዝኽሪ ሓበን!

[Yemane G. Meskel 🇪🇷 @hawelti]

President Isaias Afwerki laid a Wreath at Asmara's Patriots Cemetery in the morning hours today in tribute & remembrance of #Eritrea's heroic Martyrs.

Ceremony included public procession from Sheda Square to the Cemetery as well as cultural shows on the precious sacrifices paid for ascertaining and safeguarding national sovereignty/territorial integrity and human dignity.

ሃገር ኣብ ረዚን ዝኽሪ ሓበን!

[Ghideon Musa @GhideonMusa]

The candlelight vigil for #Eritrea's Martyrs' Day is happening now in Asmara and across the country.
Via EriTV

[Yemane G. Meskel 🇪🇷 @hawelti]

Prayers (ሰላትን ዱዓን) held at Asmara's Grand Mosque in mid-afternoon hours today in commemoration of Martyrs Day.

Presiding over the event, Eritrea's Mufti, Sheikh Salim Ibrahim Al-Mukhtar, stated that "June 20th is a day of pride and honour in which we pay tribute to our heroic Martyrs who ushered in the light of independence and sovereignty through their precious sacrifices". In the event, "it is the obligation of every citizen to support families of our Martyrs", Sheikh Salim further noted.

ሃገር ኣብ ረዚን ዝኽሪ ሓበን!

[Yemane G. Meskel 🇪🇷 @hawelti]

Sermons & Prayers in Commemoration of Martyrs Day presided by Religious Leaders of the Tewahdo Orthodox; Catholic; & Luthern Christian denominations held at St. Michael's Church in Asmara in mid-morning hours today.

Similar ceremony at Asmara Grand Mosque scheduled for later in the day

ሃገር ኣብ ረዚን ዝኽሪ ሓበን!

[Yemane G. Meskel 🇪🇷 @hawelti]

The Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare has stated that GOE has disbursed, through monthly installments, over 6.2 billion Nacfa in tribute to, and, for the support of the families of Eritrea's Martyrs in the past twenty years (2004-2025).

ሃገር ኣብ ረዚን ዝኽሪ ሓበን!

[➊➒➒➊ 🇪🇷 @Meconneno]

Ambassador Sophia Tesfamariam rejected the UN Special Rapporteur's report on #Eritrea, describing it as biased, unverified, and disconnected from realities on the ground. She argued that Eritrea is already reviewed through existing UN mechanisms, highlighted the country's resilience despite external pressures, and called for the Special Rapporteur's mandate to be terminated.
#Eritrea @AmbStesfamariam

[ESPN Africa @ESPNAfrica]

Alexander Isak is playing at the World Cup with the Eritrea flag on his boots 🇪🇷

Isak was born and raised in Sweden by Eritrean parents.