Introduction
The summer of 2022 saw an unprecedented challenge to the grip that the Eritrean ruling party,
the inaptly named “People’s Front for Democracy and Justice” [or PFDJ] exercises over the
Eritrean population dispersed around the world. Perhaps as many as a quarter of all Eritreans
currently live in exile, having fled the intense repression that has blighted the nation that won
its independence from Ethiopia in 1993. No-one can be sure of the numbers. There has been no
modern census of its estimated 3 to 4 million population, which is ruthlessly ruled by President
Isaias Afwerki.
Eritrea is effectively “owned and controlled” by the self-declared president and his tiny clique,
who have never held an election of any kind. The president openly declared there will be no
election in the country for “generations”. He and his associates run the country in much the
same way as mafia gangs operate. It is a one-party state with no functioning constitution,
freedom of expression or independent media. There is no independent judiciary and tens of
thousands of people locked in prisons (some in shipping containers) for decades, without due
process of law.
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