The government has been progressively restricting the social and charitable activities of the Church.
Fikremariam Hagos, bishop of Segheneity in southern Eritrea, was arrested by police at the Asmara airport as he entered the country after a trip to Europe. The Eritrean government has made no official statement, but the prelate is being held in Adi Abeto prison, together with the priests Mihretab Stefanos, pastor of the church of St. Michael in Segheneity, and Abba Abraham, superior of the Capuchins of Tesseney. The events reportedly took place last week, according to Agenzia Fides.
These arrests come at a time when tensions in the African country are growing due to clashes between the various separatist movements in the region of Tigray. Added to this, the country is intensifying its involvement in Ethiopia’s civil war, hampering efforts to end the fighting that has destabilized the entire region for the past two years.
Opposed to the war
The bishop had spoken out publicly against involvement in the Ethiopian war, among other things, warning the faithful not to take advantage of goods looted by the army from the people of Tigray and offered for sale in Eritrean markets. In addition to this detention, the government has been progressively restricting the social and charitable activities of the Church, nationalizing, among other things, some schools and health centers, as is the most recent case of the agricultural institute of the De La Salle Brothers in Hagaz and the Salesian technical institute of Decameré.
Obstacles to peace in Ethiopia
Hostility between Eritrea and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, a faction fighting the Ethiopian government, goes back decades. Although Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki and the Tigrayan insurgents once fought side by side to overthrow the communist Derg regime in Ethiopia, relations soured after Eritrea gained independence in 1993 and sought to assert its sovereignty.
Ethiopia and Eritrea then fought a border war from 1998 to 2000 that claimed tens of thousands of lives. That conflict did not officially end until 2018, when Abiy Ahmed Ali took over as prime minister in Ethiopia and signed a peace agreement with Isaias Afewerki, a détente that earned the Ethiopian leader the Nobel Peace Prize. In recent months, Eritrea has closed all international schools and also the border with Sudan, a measure designed to prevent Isaias Afewerki’s opponents from infiltrating the country. The president has also ordered all those previously exempted from military service to undergo new medical tests.