[file photo] A street in Asmara, Eritrea, in an image shared by UN Special Procedures with its statement on arbitrary detention in Eritrea on October 30, 2026. Photo: UN Special Procedures (@UN_SPExperts) via X
UN human rights experts have called on Eritrea to release everyone held arbitrarily and to say what happened to hundreds of people who vanished in detention, some of them more than 30 years ago.
“For over 35 years, Eritreans have faced arbitrary arrests and detentions, often without charges or trial,” the experts said in a statement issued in Geneva on Oct. 30. They said the pattern of arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance has gone on with impunity since 1991, with people held without access to their families, lawyers or any court. “In hundreds of cases, fate and whereabouts of persons deprived of their liberty remain unknown, inflicting anguish on families and communities,” the UN Special Procedures office wrote on X.
The experts said those affected include former government officials, journalists, veterans of the independence struggle and religious leaders, some of whom have been held for decades. They warned that widespread or systematic prolonged arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances and religious persecution may amount to crimes against humanity, and they urged the government to release all those held arbitrarily, immediately and without conditions, to tell families where their relatives are, and to allow independent investigations.
They highlighted the case of Bitweded Abraha, a veteran of the independence movement and former senior official who was first arrested on October 6, 1991, and who they said remains in arbitrary detention 35 years later. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found his detention arbitrary in 2018 and called for his release and reparations, the experts noted.
They also recalled the former senior officials known as the G15 and the independent journalists who were arrested in September 2001 after the reformers publicly criticized President Isaias Afwerki. The experts named the journalists Seyoum Tsehaye and Dawit Isaak among those whose fate is still unknown more than 25 years later. Dawit Isaak, who holds Swedish and Eritrean citizenship, has become a symbol of press freedom campaigns in Europe.
On religious persecution, the experts said hundreds of Muslim religious leaders were forcibly disappeared between 1991 and 1997, in 2005 and 2006 and again in 2013, mainly in the Gash Barka and Northern Red Sea regions, including Judge Mohamed Maranet, imams and teachers. Seven Christian leaders have been held without charge and without contact with the outside world for more than two decades, they said, naming Haile Naizge, Kidane Weldou, Kiflu Gebremeskel, Meron Gebreselassie, Futsum Gebrenegus, Tekleab Menghisteab and Gebremedhin Gebregiorgis.
The appeal spread widely among Eritreans on X. Martin Plaut, a British journalist who has written about Eritrea for decades, shared the statement on Oct. 30. Scofield (@merihwegihu) said the G15 and the journalists “have never been charged, tried or seen by their families,” and called detention without trial “not an accident” but “the system.” He urged the United States to press Asmara “for proof of life” of the prisoners. Felemawi (@phelemawi) wrote that families “still do not know if they are alive.”
Others pointed to timing. Yordi Yori Gebre (@Ygebre1) questioned what this week’s meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Isaias in Moscow could do about “decades of repression, indefinite national service, arbitrary detention” in Eritrea. Earlier in the week, several users, including Habtish Gurmu (@Habtishgreat), criticized the UN Human Rights Council for choosing an Eritrean diplomat, Habtom Zerai Ghirmai, as chair rapporteur of its 2026 Social Forum.
Eritrea’s government had not responded publicly to the statement by early Sunday. Its Ministry of Information and Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel posted on X on Saturday about the Moscow talks and other subjects, but not about the experts’ appeal. Eritrean officials have in the past rejected UN human rights reports on the country as politically motivated. In April, the Ministry of Information said the government “has categorically and consistently rejected” claims of arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance “as utterly baseless,” saying the cases cited involve people “charged with serious national security offenses.” Eritrea also does not allow the UN special rapporteur on the country to visit.
Eritrea has had no national elections since independence in 1993, its 1997 constitution has never been put into effect, and no independent media have operated since 2001. The experts said families have a right to the truth about their loved ones, alongside investigations that establish responsibility and deliver justice, according to the statement.
Sources
- UN Special Procedures (@UN_SPExperts) on X
- OHCHR statement via Mirage News
- Eritrea Ministry of Information (Shabait), April 23, 2026
- Devdiscourse (UN experts statement)
- Martin Plaut (@martinplaut) on X
- Scofield (@merihwegihu) on X
- Felemawi (@phelemawi) on X
- Yordi Yori Gebre (@Ygebre1) on X
- Habtish Gurmu (@Habtishgreat) on X