Protests seeking to disrupt events hosted by Eritrea, known as the ‘North Korea of Africa’, have grown more violent in recent months.
Source: The Times
Ben Ellery Crime Editor
Friday January 05 2024, 8.45pm, The Times
In the horn of Africa, President Afwerki of Eritrea stands accused of creating one of the world’s bleakest dictatorships, provoking countless numbers of his countrymen to flee.
More than 3,000 miles away, British streets are now playing host to Eritrean sectarianism, with those loyal to Afwerki engaging in violent clashes with members of the diaspora who strongly oppose the dictator.
In recent months incidents have become more hostile and last week they culminated in a mob on the streets of south London brandishing sticks and setting upon the police.
Footage of the skirmish, which left an emergency worker needing hospital treatment after being attacked with a roadworks barrier, went viral.
The event was taking place at the Lighthouse Theatre in Camberwell, south London
The scuffle last Saturday happened at a party at the Lighthouse Theatre, in Camberwell, which had been organised to celebrate the new year.
Members of the pro-democracy Eritrean All Parties Working Group had attempted to get the event cancelled, claiming that it had been overseen by the Eritrean embassy and was therefore supportive of the dictator.
However, the event went ahead, attended by members of the embassy, and what followed were the graphic scenes of about 50 protesters draped in the former flag of Eritrea, a symbol of the struggle for independence, clashing with police.
Eight people were arrested, with four police officers injured, and police imposed a section 35 dispersal order, allowing them to exclude people from the area.
Similar scenes have occurred across Europe. In September an Eritrean cultural festival in Stuttgart descended into violent chaos as opposing mobs attacked each other and police with stones, bottles, and wooden planks.
Members of the pro-democracy working group say they regret the scenes in Camberwell. They say that over the past two years they have stopped about eight events from going ahead.
They operate on WhatsApp groups where they coordinate their protests, bombarding venues where Eritrean events are happening with phone calls and emails until they call off the event.
Mehari Masho, a youth worker and member of the protest group, said: “The fighting with the police was a mistake and we’re very sorry it happened.
“Eritrea is the North Korea of Africa and we feel that if any other dictatorship tried to hold events in the UK they would not be allowed.
“Things have become really nasty. The nationalists who support the dictatorship have targeted me in the UK.
“When I see them in the street they call me a traitor. I’m a gas engineer and have had to take my name off my van as I was getting emails telling me they were going to kidnap my family in Eritrea.
“We are showing solidarity with our people in Eritrea. At these events money is raised for the Eritrean government and sent back home — it is disgusting.”
Mehari Masho, an Eritrean pro-democracy activist, coordinated protests against the Eritrean regime through Whatsapp groups.
In September 2022 protesters clashed with police after a peaceful demonstration outside the Eritrean embassy, in Islington, north London, turned nasty.
The demonstration had been organised to condemn Eritrea’s occupation of the Tigray region in the north of Ethiopia.
A group of counterprotesters arrived and there were clashes with bottles and wooden canes.
Police said 15 arrests were made for public order offences and wilful obstruction of the highway.
In response, an asylum seeker from Eritrea wrote a piece in the Morning Star entitled “I thought I was safe in the UK, but the brutal Eritrean regime I fled is here too.”
It featured quotes from Elizabeth Chyrum, founder and director of the British-based group Human Rights Concern Eritrea. She said: “When I was seven months pregnant, four women threatened to physically hurt me, but I managed to escape. Since then, I am very careful [about] my movements and engagements.”
In response, the Eritrean embassy described the opposition as “hooligans”.
The embassy claims that the protesters are of Ethiopian descent, bent on causing disruption for their enemy neighbour, and have falsely claimed to be Eritrean asylum seekers.
Since the border war with Ethiopia in the late 1990s, Afwerki and the ruling Popular Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), the only party permitted in Eritrea, have used indefinite army service to control its population.
The UN reported that conscripts are subjected to forced labour that “effectively abuses, exploits and enslaves them for years”.
Recruits have been sent across the border to fight in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, where a civil war has killed more than half a million people.
Afwerki has ruled the country since it gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993.
With no parliament, constitution, independent judiciary, elections or free press, Afwerki and his small team of advisers rule Eritrea unchallenged. Opponents are locked up without charge or trial, alongside draft dodgers and those who try to flee.
Human Rights Concern Eritrea has previously claimed that among the government supporters are trained gangs who operate abroad and physically attack protesters and members of the opposition.
An Amnesty International report in 2019 accused Afwerki’s ruling party of carrying out “death threats, physical assault and spreading of lies” to silence critics in the diaspora.
A spokeswoman for the embassy said: “Since 2022 a wave of violent mobs across Europe and North America started targeting Eritrean events, attacking the elderly, women and children.
“In the UK for instance, last May women attending an Eritrean event were intercepted in Tube stations across London and intimidated, attendees were chased and beaten, in one case a five-year-old had a hot drink thrown at his face.
“This group, mostly made up of individuals of Ethiopian descent, most of which have claimed asylum here falsely identifying as Eritrean, have made numerous calls across social media to attack and kill any Eritrean who attends these events.
“Even in the lead-up to the event last Saturday, they were calling for attacking and killing any attendee and to attack the police if they dare to protect the event-goers.
“The police have been notified of these attacks and have made numerous arrests on previous occasions.
“As a person with common sense, it’s very difficult to fathom their claims of being intimidated by the Eritrean government in UK while simultaneously calling for the maiming and murder of people for simply being members of their community.”
A Home Office spokesman said: “The right to peaceful protest is a vital part of a democratic society.
We fully back the police to use the powers and laws available to them to clamp down on any crimes being committed.”
Martin Plaut 