Why Eritrea is called Africa’s North Korea

By T.G. | ADDIS ABABA

ERITREA has had some unhappy claims to fame over the years. Its war of liberation from neighbouring Ethiopia, which began in the 1960s and only ended in 1991, was one of Africa’s longest-running conflicts. Then, as a newly independent country, it fought a war with Ethiopia between 1998 and 2000, one of the bloodiest in the continent’s history, which only formally ended on July 8th of this year. Eritrea was Africa’s largest single source of refugees to Europe from 2014 to 2016. Over the past decade so many people have left that Eritrea has been called the world’s fastest-emptying nation. It has been likened to Cuba and the former East Germany. But in recent years no title has proven more durable (or more controversial) than that of “Africa’s North Korea”.

There are plenty of good reasons why Eritrea is not North Korea. It is less repressive and does not have nuclear weapons. Though it has picked fights with its neighbours it poses an existential threat to none. Both Eritrea and North Korea have been sanctioned by the UN but Eritrea is subject only to an arms embargo, which might be lifted soon. Both regimes are isolationist but Eritrea’s somewhat less so: in recent years it has engaged with the European Union, allowed some UN agencies to establish offices inside the country, and cultivated strong ties with Gulf states like the United Arab Emirates. Ordinary Eritreans enjoy much more exposure to the outside world than their North Korean counterparts: satellite television is ubiquitous and the internet, though extraordinarily slow, is apparently uncensored. Eritrean nationals who have lived abroad for many years can come and go as they please, provided they toe the party line and pay a “diaspora tax”. By contrast, North Koreans who manage to get out can never return.