A closer look at the January 21st Eritrean military revolt - awate.com

The events of January 21st, the takeover of Eritrea’s Ministry of Information by members of Eritrea’s military for twelve hours, cannot be understood properly unless one has been following Eritrea’s exiled opposition media for the preceding 3-4 months. These include the Paltalk rooms in Europe that cater to Eritrean exiles; the France-based Radio Erena, the UK-based assenna.com; the US-based Asmarino.com, the Ethiopia-based Wegahta radio, the globally dispersed Eritrean social media (facebook, twitter, etc) and of course, awate.com. All of us have been saying that the Eritrean regime is giving signs that the beginning of its end is near. Since awate.com’s server is down, we refer you to an October 12, 2012 Gedab News article, now housed at Indepth Africa, with the title “Is This The Beginning Of The End For The Eritrean Regime?”

The Eritrean opposition media describe a nation which is emptying out its youth at the rate of 3,000 a month; a nation which either stands by quietly or benefits financially from the inhumane and savage treatment of its youth in Egypt’s Sinai as they are being raped, killed and their organs harvested; a nation where even senior officials and elite pilots and elite athletes no longer see any hope for reform and are leaving in droves; a nation facing dire economic challenges where basic necessities are available only via contraband; a nation whose infrastructure is crumbling apart; a nation which is the subject of sanction and global isolation; a pariah nation where power is getting even more increasingly centralized in the office of the increasingly paranoid president.

Seeing from this context, whether one calls the January 21 incident an act of frustration, a coup d’etat attempt, a mutiny is irrelevant. What is more important is that some people finally said “Enough!” and laid bare the ugliness of the Isaias Afwerki regime for the whole world to see. It was specially sweet that the only media in the world–Eri-TV– that was trying to deny the truth was forced to tell the truth. And given the global press coverage: mission accomplished. Isaias Afwerki’s twenty one year campaign to show that he is beloved by his people, that whatever “opposition” (opposition always in scare quotes) he faces is external was demolished in 12 hours by brave Eritrean soldiers. Read more