The Demonstration Organising Committee of the Red Sea Afar Refugees at the Ayssaita Camp announces the successful completion of today’s peaceful demonstrations in the Afar Regional State of Ethiopia.

Thousands of refugees participated, alongside a significant presence of tribal and religious leaders, community representatives, youth,  women , victims, Eyewitness and survivors.

These demonstrations were held in support of the complaints submitted by the Red Sea Afar Democratic Organisation to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights of the African Union. The complaints document grave crimes and systematic human rights violations committed by the Eritrean regime against the Red Sea Afar people over the past three decades.

The Committee affirms that the submitted complaints reflect the tragic reality experienced by the Red Sea Afar people in Eritrea, including genocide, arbitrary arrests, brutal sieges, deliberate starvation, forced military conscription, and the mass displacement of Afar communities from their homes, towns, villages, and coastal areas.

These displacements have been accompanied by the settlement of people from other ethnicities and cultures, as part of a deliberate policy of ethnic cleansing aimed at altering the demographic structure of the Red Sea Afar region. These acts constitute flagrant violations of fundamental human rights and freedoms guaranteed under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, specifically:

• Article 4: Right to life

• Article 5: Right to human dignity

• Article 6: Right to liberty and security of the person

• Articles 8 & 9: Rights to freedom of belief, opinion, and expression

• Articles 15 & 17: Rights to work and education

They also breach Eritrea’s obligations under international humanitarian law and the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
Demonstrators carried banners denouncing the Eritrean regime’s policies of ethnic exclusion, political repression, systematic marginalisation, and violations of human rights. They reiterated their core demands:

1. An immediate end to gross human rights violations and crimes;

2. Lifting of the blockade;

3. Provision of humanitarian aid to those in need;

4. Release of political prisoners;

5. Cessation of forced military conscription;

6. Safe return of displaced persons to their homes.

The Demonstration Organising Committee calls upon IGAD, the international community, and regional and international human rights bodies—particularly the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights—to:

• Undertake an independent and comprehensive investigation into these violations;

• Hold perpetrators accountable before international justice;

• Establish urgent protection mechanisms to safeguard Afar refugees from threats, coercion, or harm.

The Committee emphasises that this demonstration is only the first step in a sustained series of peaceful actions aimed at amplifying the voice of the Red Sea Afar people, exposing the scale of their suffering, and ensuring that their internationally and regionally recognized rights are upheld in practice—not left as mere words on paper.

The Demonstration Organising Committee
Ayssaita Refugee Camp, Afar Regional State, Ethiopia