Eritrea arrests over 200 Christians in one year

YAOUNDE, Cameroon – Eritrea in East Africa is one of the ten countries in the world where it is extremely dangerous to follow Jesus.

A July 3 report by the UK-based organization Release International, which reports on the persecuted church worldwide, said at least 218 Christians, many of them women and children, had been arrested in Eritrea in the past 12 months.

“This latest crackdown means that around 400 Christians are currently detained for their faith – indefinitely, without trial or charge,” the report said.

It is said that 110 Christians were arrested between January and May.

“In the latest wave of arrests, some children were arrested along with their parents, and in some cases the whole family is in prison,” said Dr. Berhane Asmelash, a former prisoner of faith and local partner of Release International.

“We are deeply concerned about the physical and mental well-being of the children, some of whom are as young as two years old. This is totally unacceptable and we strongly condemn this inhumane act by the Eritrean government,” he said.

Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after 30 years of war. The former leader of the independence movement, Isaias Afwerki, has ruled the country since then.

Afwerki initially led the country into a democratic form of government, but then became increasingly authoritarian, for which the church paid a high price. His government recognizes only four state religions, namely the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Sunni Islam, the Catholic Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Eritrea. But even with these, the government maintains tight control over their activities, finances and sermons.

“Speaking of persecution or government interference in church affairs is not tolerated at all,” Open Doors explains.

Ellis Heasley, Public Affairs Officer of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, said core in an earlier interview that “Christians in Eritrea continue to face widespread imprisonment and other violations of their basic human rights.”

“Many will be familiar with the case of Abune (Father) Antonios, the legitimate Patriarch of the Orthodox Church, who died on February 9, 2022, after 16 years of house arrest. He had been removed from office in 2006 in violation of canon law for repeatedly protesting against government interference in church affairs and refusing to excommunicate members of the Orthodox Renewal Movement. He died amid allegations that he had been injected with an unknown substance that had adverse effects on his health,” he said.

“The prolonged and unjustified detention of the Patriarch during the last years of his life is a sign of the continuing hostility of the Eritrean authorities towards Christian groups in the country. The government has effectively ‘captured’ the Orthodox Church, controlling its finances, selling its assets, approving and installing leaders, and imprisoning priests and others who object,” Heasley said.

The recently published international report comes at the same time as the US State Department’s International Religious Freedom Report, which lists Eritrea as a country of particular concern “because it has committed or tolerated particularly serious violations of religious freedom.”

This has always been the case for the country on the Horn of Africa since 2004.

Nigerian Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Abuja said core that the violation of the right to belief constitutes a fundamental violation of all other freedoms.

“Religious freedom is not just an American right, it’s the right of all people. It goes hand in hand with freedom of expression, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, and when religious freedom is restricted, all of those rights are at risk. And for that reason, religious freedom is often the indicator of other human rights,” Kaigama said.

Kaigama said the media had neglected to cover religious freedom, even though it was under pressure in several parts of the world.

“A journalist imprisoned in Iran is likely to attract more attention than three thousand Christians killed or enslaved in Sudan,” he said. core.

Heasley of Christian Solidarity Worldwide says her organization continues to call on the Eritrean government to “immediately and unconditionally release all prisoners of conscience in the country and end the use of torture, arbitrary arrests and indefinite detention.”

“We call on Eritrea to cooperate fully with the UN Human Rights Council and its Special Procedures to improve the human rights situation and fully implement the recommendations of successive Special Rapporteurs and the Commission of Inquiry,” she said. core.