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An Eritrean human rights organisation has welcomed the release of 13 people who were jailed without charge for almost 18 years, while warning that thousands of others remain behind bars under similar conditions.
The announcement has once again drawn attention to the country’s long-standing human rights record under President Isaias Afwerki, who has ruled since independence in 1993 and presides over one of the world’s most repressive states.
Human Rights Concern–Eritrea (HRCE) said the group, which included a former Olympic athlete and ex-police officers, had been freed last week after being detained for nearly two decades without trial or legal representation. The organisation described their imprisonment as brutal, saying many had been kept in solitary confinement and subjected to treatment that amounted to torture. It added that conditions at Mai Serwan prison, near the capital Asmara, were particularly severe, with some detainees held in metal containers exposed to extreme temperatures.
Although welcoming the releases, HRCE said the move did little to alter the broader human rights picture in Eritrea, claiming more than 10,000 prisoners of conscience are still being held. The group stressed that the overall situation in the country remains unchanged and is characterised by systematic abuse.
The organisation urged international bodies and foreign governments, including the African Union, the United States and the United Nations, to increase pressure on the Eritrean authorities to end what it called widespread violations and to introduce accountability for past and ongoing abuses.
Critics say dissent in Eritrea is met with imprisonment or disappearance, while civilians face compulsory military service and forced labour, conditions that the United Nations has previously said amount to modern-day slavery.
Eritrea’s information minister did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the scale of the detentions or the conditions in which prisoners are held.
