Scores of Eritreans in Ethiopia march against their government

Hundreds of Eritreans living in Ethiopia on Friday marched to the African Union headquaters, in Addis Ababa, to protest against their government back home, which has been accused in a United Nations report of crimes against humanity.

UN human rights investigators said in their report that they had collected evidence of widespread state-sponsored enslavement, imprisonment, enforced disappearances, torture, rape and murder since 1991.

“Mothers who have children have become as if they are barren. They have no children around them to help them in their daily life. All the youth in the country have migrated and become prey to the sea. Death has become the fate of everyone,” said Hiwot Gebregziabher, an Eritrean refugee.

Eritrea has rejected all the allegations made by the U.N. Furthermore, the Eritrean Foreign Minister Osman Saleh recently spoke to a French news agency saying the African Union and United nations who stand as witnesses to the violations and the fight between the country and its neighbour Ethiopia are not impartial.

“All the people of Eritrea are facing immense problems. Every citizen is becoming desperate and fleeing the country. We want the international community to understand this and bring him (Eritrea’s president] to justice,” Alazar Teklemariam, an Eritrean Refugee.

Saleh said the reported number of Eritrean migrants leaving for Europe is completely ballooned by Somalis and Ethiopians and others who left their countries for Europe by saying they were Eritreans.