In May 2019 Al Jazeera published an Independence Day opinion by exiled Eritrean journalist Abraham T. Zere arguing that peace with Ethiopia had not delivered political freedom inside Eritrea.
The essay said Isaias Afwerki’s government still blocked reform, and that many Eritreans were already imagining a country after Afwerki even while official parades celebrated the armed struggle and the new diplomatic thaw.
Peace without openings left national service, media control, and exile politics largely unchanged, and the piece captured that gap for readers watching Asmara from outside.
Kept as rights and politics archive, the Al Jazeera column dates Eritrean dissent at the first postwar independence anniversary.
Sources: Al Jazeera Opinion