Mereja Forum

From school to the grave, military service tears families apart in Eritrea

Indefinite national service is causing heartache and fuelling migration to Europe

Sally Hayden in Kampala. about 11 hours ago

...Many Eritreans have stories like Hamid’s, of families torn apart by forced labour on a scale activists say is similar only to what happens in North Korea. Eritreans recall losing friends who were shot while trying to flee, or being imprisoned and tortured underground if they are caught alive. One teenager, now in Europe, told me how his father died in the Sinai desert trying to get away, after decades of being kept in the military, far from his family...