Eritrea’s active opposition: the rise of Brigade N’Hamedu

Eritrea under President Isaias Afwerki remains one of the most closed dictatorships in the world.

Human Rights Watch provided this brief overview.

Eritrea’s government continued to severely repress its population, imposing restrictions on freedom of expression, opinion, and faith, and restricting independent scrutiny by international monitors. Eritrea continued to negatively impact the rights environment in the Horn of Africa region.

Eritrea is a one-man dictatorship under unelected President Isaias Afewerki, with no legislature, no independent civil society organizations or media outlets, and no independent judiciary. In 2001, Isaias closed all independent newspapers and arrested 10 journalists held incommunicado to date. Elections have never been held in the country since it gained independence in 1993, and the government has never implemented the 1997 constitution guaranteeing civil rights and limiting executive power.

https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2023/country-chapters/eritrea

The regime may look impregnable, with all internal opposition apparently crushed. Yet it is not. The Eritrean government relies heavily on its large and growing diaspora for political and financial support. An estimated one third of all funds at President Isaias’s disposal comes from its exiles.

While there are a plethora of Eritrean opposition groups, one has emerged in the past two years that has stolen the headlines: Brigade N’Hamedu, or the ‘Blue Brigade’ as it is sometimes know, for their use of the old Eritrean flag at its protests.

From Norway to Israel, from Germany to the United States, they are challenging the Eritrean regime whenever they hold ‘festivals’ to raise funds and put pressure on the Eritrean diaspora to continue providing support for President Isaias.

Who are Brigade N’Hamedu?

To answer to this question I spoke to a member of the Brigade in Britain, Solomon Mesele, the movement’s diplomatic representative in the UK.

He explained that the formation of Brigade N’Hamedu (the name implies a group that will fight for Eritrean soil to the end) came about following tours by a well known Eritrean actor, on behalf of the Eritrean authorities. He is Awel Said.

Eritreans who fled from their government were outraged by what they describe as his militarised and aggressive campaigns from international platforms.

Young Eritreans, who risked their lives crossing the Sahara and the Mediterranean to reach safety abroad, were outraged.

They decided that the Eritrean festivals – which go back to 1974 when they raised money and support for Eritrea’s fight for independence – should not go unchallenged. Young Eritreans from across Europe began to share information and to organise themselves.

Solomon Mesele explained that after Awel Seid’s third tour in 2022 and clashes in the German city of Giessen, that it was decided to form Brigade N’Hamedu.

The Eritrean government’s Minister of Information, Yemane Gebremeskel portrayed Giessen as just another cultural event.

But members of the Eritrean opposition told a very different story – accusing Eritrean pro-government paramilities of threatening them.

The opposition were determined not to be beaten up by the paramilities, known as “Eri-Blood” or “52” – after the initials “EB”, as they had been in the past.

And so Brigade N’Hamedu was formed. The idea came from several individuals, including someone called “John Black” or “Johannes Black”, who defected from the Eritrean military and came to the Netherlands via Libya and Italy about 10 years ago. He became the Brigade’s head of operations.

The Eritrean government, and its supporters, identify him as Yohannes Abreha.

What are the Brigade’s aims?

Solomon Mesele says that the aim of the Brigade is to get rid of President Isaias and the PFDJ and to establish a functioning democracy in Eritrea, with its citizens having the normal rights enjoyed by people in democracies around the world.

To achieve this the Brigade plans to form a Transitional Government in Exile, which will draw on members of the diaspora, irrespective of their religious or political affiliations.

The Brigade is acutely aware of the ability of the regime to work among the exile community to divide it. That is why previous movements, including Yiakl have collapsed. To this end it has adopted a code of conduct or ‘bylaws’. This is the version adopted by the Brigade in the UK in November 2023.

If anyone breaks the code they will be expelled.

The Brigade hopes to hold elections worldwide in about a year’s time – by December 2024. To do this will be no easy task, but each of the Brigade’s international organisations or chapters are expected to arrange elections from their membership.

British members of the Brigade met in November this year, electing Tirhas Abriha, a woman, as their leader. The UK board consists of 37 members, of which Solomon is one.

Currently the Brigade has organisations in countries around the world, including Norway, Sweden, Holland, Switzerland, Britain, Germany, the USA, Finland, Israel, Australia and South Africa.

Each chapter will elect 2 representatives to the government in exile after a democratic vote which they will organise early next year. The UK vote could take place in Birmingham or London in July.

Together, the international chapters will elect 26 members who will form the ‘upper house’ of the planned Eritrean government will also act as the Eritrean government in exile.

The members of the elected representatives on the Brigade’s country boards will form a ‘lower house’. So the 37 members from the UK (together with the representatives from all other countries) will be part of the ‘lower house’.

If the Eritrean government in exile does indeed come about in 2024 it will be the first Eritrean government ever to be elected: President Isaias has held no election in Eritrea since independence in 1993.

What plans does the Brigade have?

The Brigade has decided that rather than having a dispute about what sort of constitution they will have for a free Eritrea (an issue that has divided the diaspora for years) that they will for the time being use the constitution put forward by Dr Berket Habte Selassie. This was introduced to the Eritrean National Assembly in 1997, but was never been ratified by President Isaias, and therefore has not come into force.

The Brigade has begun working in Ethiopia and has held meetings in Adigrat and Addis. The situation in Addis is not easy, but far better than it was in the past, when Eritrean agents had a free run of the city. Most have now been removed, or are keeping their heads down.

The Brigade knows that in the end the political change will only be decided in Eritrea itself.  Solomon says they have links with the military and with other sections of society, but obviously can say nothing about this at present.

The current plan – apart from holding elections and forming a transitional government in exile – is to try to halt the flows of funds to the regime, via the 2% tax on the Eritrean diaspora around the world, and other money-raising schemes, like the church funds which are syphoned off by the PFDJ in Germany and the Scandinavian countries.