ሓርነት

Documenting 30+ years of dictatorship, propaganda, and failure in Eritrea - one tweet at a time

[ሓርነት @ADawit]

The same man kissed the Cross from the late Patriarch Abune Antonios before deposing him, jailing him for 16 years, and letting him die under arrest. Devotion, pfdj - style. Eritrea

[Zekarias tekle eseyas @zeka50214]

When a dictator who has spent decades imprisoning priests, silencing the Church, crushing the faithful, and ruling through fear suddenly bows his head inside a church pretending to show humility before God, it is not an act of faith but a calculated performance — a cynical lie designed to deceive the people into believing he stands close to the holy, while the truth is that he has trampled everything the Church represents: love, justice, and human dignity; he weaponizes religion to hide his crimes, yet no prayer can wash away the tears of mothers whose children disappeared into nameless prisons, no icon can cover the silence of the priests he forced into submission, and no cross can save him from the justice that will one day rise from the very people he tries to control with fear and fake devotion.

#Eritrea #NoMorePFDJTerror
#TransnationalRepression
#BlueRevolution

[ሓርነት @ADawit]

@UNWatch @ErmiLiberty Hard to take this seriously. A regime widely accused of forced labor & modern-day slavery, now has a seat on a body meant to promote social & economic progress.
The real tragedy isn't the irony - it's the message this sends to those who have spent years trapped in that system.

[ሓርነት @ADawit]

@martinplaut The remedy? Dismantling this toxic obsession. Eritrea’s future shouldn't belong to flags, martyrs, or blood purity, but to a politics of dignity - building fair institutions, human rights, and a society where a citizen's belonging is never conditional.

[ሓርነት @ADawit]

@martinplaut How a toxic obsession with “blood purity” breeds deep trauma. Even President Isaias, wounded by the weaponized slur “Agame” (as detailed in Andebrhan’s book👇 supposedly vowed to tear z country down out of spite.
​When a national identity is built on exclusion, it breeds tyranny.

[Martin Plaut @martinplaut]

Where Is Your Father? What Eritrea Taught Me About Identity, Belonging, and Politics
https://t.co/o0NnZVvB3D

[Ermi @ErmiLiberty]

So-called “cultural festivals” organized by the regime supporters and promoted through children are not merely cultural events. They are often used for political propaganda, fundraising, and influence campaigns that deserve public scrutiny. Exploiting children for political purposes is unacceptable. Every western authorities should investigate these activities.

#RegimeChangeInEritrea #BlueRevolution #EBRF #TransnationalRepretion #NoMorePFDJTorror @TiborPNagyJr @BereketKahsai1 @BeyeneGerezghe1 @CmaDawit @HabtomGheb64613 @Leila68488345 @Sweden @Telegraph @UN_HRC @UNHumanRights @UN

@demo_demo_nl @JuisteAntwoord @MinPres @MonaKeijzer @KAFKA_Dev @nieuwsvandaag_ @lyd20211 @Politie

[ሓርነት @ADawit]

@OsloFF @gualtesfa8 A profoundly moving and vital testimony. Everything she said is the absolute truth - the cruel reality that has torn so many families apart. Yirgalem, you have taken a lifetime of suffering and turned it into an uplifting call for freedom and human dignity.
Thank you!

[Oslo Freedom Forum (OFF) @OsloFF]

She grew up believing the story she was told until arrests, disappearances, and indefinite military service shattered it.

Yirgalem Fisseha takes the stage at the Oslo Freedom Forum to share a life split in two: from poetry to prison, from hope to solitary confinement. Her story reveals what it costs to speak when a state demands silence.

[ሓርነት @ADawit]

Thank you for speaking the absolute truth for millions forced into silence. Every word is painfully true - the stolen youth, the broken families.
​But you prove the human spirit can’t be locked away. Proud of your resilience! 🕊️ #Eritrea @FissehaYirgalem
https://t.co/xgZPvbA4FZ

[Senay GM @gm_senay]

Crimes against humanity have been committed in Eritrean detention, military training & other faciliti across the country the past 25 years.These are a new report by the UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) on human rights in Eritrea, presented in Geneva. UNTV CH
https://t.co/JgX4eM2wEd

[Muller💙🎹🇳🇴🎼📝Blue @Wedi_Destu]

The Restricted Life of Eritreans

For decades, many Eritreans have lived under severe restrictions that have limited their opportunities and freedoms. While people around the world pursue education, careers, travel, and personal dreams, countless Eritreans face barriers that affect nearly every aspect of their lives.

Young Eritreans often grow up knowing that their future may be controlled by a system that offers little freedom of choice. Opportunities for higher education, employment, entrepreneurship, and independent expression are limited. Many are unable to freely decide where they will live, work, or study.

Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and political participation remain heavily restricted. Citizens who express criticism or demand change risk serious consequences. As a result, many people live in silence, unable to openly share their opinions or concerns.

The lack of opportunities has forced hundreds of thousands of Eritreans to leave their homeland in search of safety, dignity, and a better future. Families have been separated across continents, with parents, children, brothers, and sisters living far apart for years.

Despite these hardships, Eritreans continue to demonstrate remarkable resilience. They pursue education wherever they find refuge, build successful lives in new countries, and contribute positively to their communities. Yet many still carry the pain of separation, lost opportunities, and the hope of one day seeing a free and prosperous Eritrea.

Every person deserves the right to dream, to speak freely, to travel, to learn, and to build a future based on their own choices. The story of many Eritreans is not only a story of restrictions, but also a story of endurance, courage, and the continuing desire for freedom and opportunity.
#Eritrea
#BlueRevolution

[ሓርነት @ADawit]

@saayEritrea 😟Eritrea should have been at least 7mil.

[Ciham’s Uncle @saayEritrea]

2025 vs 2024: 16,288 “forcibly displaced” Eritreans

The differences between the cumulative number for 2025 and 2024 is the number of Eritreans who were granted a refugee or asylum-seeker status in 2025.

16,288. More than a thousand per month. In a time of “relative peace.” There is never peace, just relative peace.

Three of our neighbors—Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti-did not even send us felicity letters on our Independence Day. Who cares: the U.S. didn’t sent a diplomatic pouch: it had a representative of the State Department actually read the letter. I imagined it or I heard it: he say we thank the Eritrean government for its assurances of the well being of American citizens. He ended it with yekenyeley.

Genzebka.

The cumulative number of the forcibly displaced, 679,346, does NOT include you or me: it does not include Eritreans who have been naturalized or granted permanent residence with a secure status in their host country.

The entire Diaspora is probably a multiple of that. Meanwhile, the in-country population of Eritreans was 3.65 million, per an Eritrean government report, about 5 years ago.

At what point will this be agenda that makes it to interviews of, and speeches by, President Isaias Afwerki and his government?

I mean more constructively than (a) there should be return fee, to compensate the people of Eritrea, for all the social investment these escapees cost the country and (b) stay where you are until you earn educational credentials or a thick bank account.

2025 vs 2024.

[ሓርነት @ADawit]

Let this sink in 👇
"The UN commission has concluded that Eritrean officials have committed 𝗖𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗔𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁 𝗛𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 in Eritrea. "

[✨🌿 ƬΣƧFΛ @RedSeaBeaks]

https://t.co/S6V4wZfjt4
Press release by Mike Smith, head of the Commission of Inquiry (COI) on HR in #Eritrea, on the findings of their investigation. Geneva, June 2016.

" The commission has concluded that Eritrean officials
have committed 𝗖𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗔𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁 𝗛𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆. Crimes of
- enslavement
- imprisonment
- forced disappearance
- torture
- persecution
- rape
- murder
and other inhumane acts have been committed as part of a wide spread and systematic campaign against the civilian population since 1991. "

[Cameron Hudson @_hudsonc]

"Over the coming ⁠weeks, the U.S. will ​reduce the number of embassies ��and consulates that are processing visa applications from 50 to 20." So even legal immigration or travel to the US becomes nearly impossible for more than half the continent. https://t.co/gDocwSJpba

[ሓርነት @ADawit]

@gm_senay His 35‑year tenure makes him one of the most inept, incompetent, and delusional autocrats in modern African history. A 35‑year rule by a single man should be unacceptable to any Eritrean, even if that leader were competent or benevolent.
https://t.co/7oVdCXRnCW

[Senay GM @gm_senay]

This is a bitter truth.
How painful it is for a healthy and somewhat rational Eritrean. It is shameful how much we, as Eritreans, have fallen behind in the activities and elections of (3 political Party's) political parties during Britain admin & (1941-1952) the federation.

[ሓርነት @ADawit]

Isaias embodies much of what has gone wrong in Eritrea - a ruler who hardened his heart, burdened his people.
https://t.co/7oVdCXRnCW

[ሓርነት @ADawit]

@saayEritrea Election and Eritrea
https://t.co/ohd6thjW8J

[ሓርነት @ADawit]

@PatrickHeinisc1 What election?! #isaias_afwerki #dictator of #Eritrea

[✨🌿 ƬΣƧFΛ @RedSeaBeaks]

Italian colonial rule in #Eritrea [𝘑𝘢𝘯 𝟭𝟴𝟵𝟬-𝘔𝘢𝘺 𝟭𝟵𝟰𝟭] review

Infrastructure Devpt:
- Railway: Massawa - Asmara 1887 - 1910 (23 yrs)
Asmara - Keren 1911 - 1922 (11 yrs)
Keren - Agordat 1924- 1928 (4 yrs)

- Cable way/Teleferica :
Massawa - Asmara 1935 - 1937 (2 years)

- Asmara City: proclaimed as capital in 1897.
what Italy built 1897 -1935 [38 yrs] in Asmara
. street layout & urban planning
. colonial govt blgs (governor palace, municipal
offices, court houses, police stations)
. residential districts (for Italian settlers)
. churches (Cathedral + St Mary church), schools,
hospitals, commercial (banks, hotels, cafes)
. civic infrastructure (water supply, electricity,
telephone, post office, public markets)

Nearly all of the famous art deco & modernist architectural structures associated with Asmara today were built during the construction boom bn 1935 - 1941 (6 years).

Industrialization:
transformed the pockets of food & raw material processing into robust manufacturing 1922 - 1941

Reconstruction of Massawa:
1921: A 6.1 M earthquake epicenter around S of
Dahlak archipelago destroyed Massawa (~80% of
the city destroyed).
1922 - 1928: Italian colonial rule re-built the city in 5 years. Most of the Ottoman & Egyptian design buildings standing today are all Italian re-built (including the famous palace standing as ruin today- destroyed by the 1990 war). The colonist original plan to raze the city and built it from scratch was opposed by locals. Thus, they duplicated the original designs, but they also put their own designs in some like the Bank of Italy building. They reinforced all new buildings with concrete & steel bar to survive earthquakes.

* It took the Italians ~35 years to build infrastructure across the colony, establish a capital city, set up public services, government and commercial institutions, and develop a robust industrial base. While their commitment to developing the colony was not always wholehearted and often fluctuated with geopolitics.

Eritrea as 𝙸𝚗𝚍𝚎𝚙𝚎𝚗𝚍𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚌𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚝𝚛𝚢 𝟭𝟵𝟵𝟭 - 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 [35 years]
Eritrea is enslaved nation. Its so called "domestic rule" has inflicted more damage on it than all the historical colonists, invaders & occupiers combined.
In 35 years under pfdj rule, Eritrea has become a country that struggles to maintain basic public services :water, electricity, public transport, telecom, Internet & Wifi, healthcare, education to its few urban areas. More than 85% of the population still rely on traditional agricultural practice. Its legacy industrial base and infrastructure is dismantled.

[ጋውና @MichaelK2984]

Eritrean supporters of the dictator inside and outside Eritrea have celebrated the country's 35 years of independence. In 1994, when Eritrea was 3 years independent, disabled freedom fighters asked the government for help to find a solution to get their feet on the ground. They tried to protest by marching to the capital to appeal to the dictator, but a unit from the Eritrean 5/25 Battalion blocked their way 20 km from Asmara in Maihabar. They notified commander Brigadier General Ftsum GebreHiwet, who was at a bar in Nefasit. He ordered the unit to tell the protesters to return or use force. The unit leaders said they could not stop them by force. Then he showed up, ordered the unit to shoot, and after they refused to comply, he himself took a Kalashnikov and killed 12 people. All this was witnessed by the veteran in the image, who fled the country and has been living in neighboring Ethiopia. For this independence, he gave both his hands, one eye, and sustained a head injury. He survives on 400 birr (2.8 dollars) a month and cannot afford basic needs for himself and his family. Eritrea is for a selected few, not all. That is the truth. #TransnationalRepression #Bluerevolution #Regimechange