Eritrea’s dictator Isaias Afeworki is famous for his shoot to kill policy if any Eritrean is found crossing the country’s border with Sudan or Ethiopia. Even if thousands of Eritreans still manage to cross the borders every month, hundreds of innocent Eritreans have died over the years under the dictator’s rule. Their crime was just for trying to escape the ongoing dictatorship and famine in Eritrea.
Now the dictator has even banned the Eritrean National Football team from leaving the country. According to Kenyan media, the dictator Isaias regime has suspended his country’s participation in the CECAFA tournament. There are many possible reasons given. One reason was that the Isaias government does not have money for the team. But that is ironic, because the Isaias government has been pretending like there is no famine. The Eritrean dictator was saying his regime has plenty of revenue from recent investment on natural resources in the country. He was boasting about his economic success.
Now he is saying his government has no money for a small football tournament in Tanzania?
Maybe the dictator is playing games again. Recently Kenya accused him of financing terrorists in Somalia. So maybe He wants to prove to Kenya that his regime has no money to pay for a football team let alone to finance the al Shabaab terrorists in Somalia. Another possible reason is that the Eritrean football team is terrible…even worse than the worst teams like Somalia.
But the most likely reason is that the dictator knows that all Eritreans hate him, even the national football team. In 2009, the whole Eritrean national team disappeared and applied for asylum in Kenya. Again recently in July, more Eritrean footballers fled to Tanzania. Historically in 2006 and before, many Eritrean athletes and footballers have disappeared. Unlike other African refugees, it is the elite and top Eritrean sportsmen that disappear and seek political asylum.
This shows that there is no more country pride left in Eritrea. The small country never had anything to be proud of other than some colonial buildings and architectures built by Italian colonialists.
The mainly desert Eritrea does not have any significant natural resources, historical heritages or unique achievements. The only pride for the country was “the war of independence” against Ethiopia but even that has become useless today, thanks to the dictator Isaias Afewerki. Most Eritreans feel they had more freedom under Ethiopian rule than under the Isaias rule. This explains why tens of thousands of Eritreans have risked being killed to escape back to Ethiopia every day. More than Tens of thousands of Eritreans have left Eritrea and live in Ethiopian refugee camps and even more thousands of Eritreans have left Asmara and have begun new lives in Addis Ababa and other Ethiopian cities.
As of now, the Eritrean dictator has also banned cyclists and other athletes from leaving the country for any international competition.