The Red Sea Afar Democratic Organization has issued a powerful statement urging the world to recognize the severe human rights abuses being committed by the Eritrean government against the Afar people along the Red Sea coast.
According to the organization, these abuses spanning extrajudicial killings, ethnically targeted massacres, arbitrary arrests, torture, forced military conscription, displacement, and sexual violence are systematic and state-led, amounting to crimes against humanity and genocide.
The organization highlighted that these violations are worsening day by day, with the Afar people of the Danakil region suffering immense hardship.
The organization called on international media to amplify the voices of the voiceless, urging global institutions like the United Nations and the African Union to intervene urgently and bring an end to the suffering of the Afar people in Ethiopia.
In its statement, the organization also appealed for legal, diplomatic, humanitarian, and political measures to be taken to exert meaningful pressure on the Eritrean government.
The organization stressed that Eritrea has violated 26 provisions of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, of which it is a signatory. As a result, a 122-page legal complaint with full evidence was submitted to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights on June 4, 2025.
Despite all these efforts, the Eritrean government has continued its actions with impunity. The statement calls on international organizations and the global media to urgently focus on the crimes being perpetrated against the Afar people and demand immediate action.
By Birhanu Workneh
