As Iran war smolders, shunned Eritrea looks to come in from the cold
ASMARA, Oct 5 -
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Eritrea → smolder → cold
When Halima Mohammed was six, her parents dropped her off in the desert at Revolution School, where the children of Eritrean guerrilla fighters were raised while their parents fought for independence.
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parents → drop → independence
Wounded fighters taught grammar when they weren't carrying rifles.
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they → teach → rifles
Mothers and fathers appeared only rarely before melting back into the mountains and deserts of a war that would rage for three decades before Eritrea seceded from Ethiopia in 1993.
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Eritrea → appear → 1993
Halima, 56, is now education minister of Eritrea, where that revolutionary struggle still hangs heavily over one of the most secluded and regimented societies on Earth.
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struggle → hang → Earth
She presides over a schooling system that binds the future of the country's children into the service of the state.
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that → preside → state
All teenagers must undergo army training towards the end of high school before being assigned mandatory and often indefinitely long roles in the military or in national service, mainly low-paid civilian jobs like teaching and policing.
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teenagers → undergo → teaching
"All school graduates are getting at least a job to work, and they are getting their salary.
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they → get → salary
And at the same time, they are serving the country," Halima told Reuters, which was granted rare access to the nation.
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which → serve → nation
"If you are going to have more freedom, first you have to have a country, you have to have national security, because we paid a lot for Eritrea.
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we → go → Eritrea
Eritrea has long been isolated by the West, which views the East African country as among the most repressive in the world, while the government in Asmara has itself pursued a policy of political and economic seclusion.
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government → isolate → seclusion
No elections have been held since the nation became a sovereign state in the 1990s.
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nation → hold → 1990s
Independent media outlets were shut down in 2001.
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outlets → shut → 2001
Hundreds of thousands of Eritreans have defied strict travel restrictions, which bar most working-age citizens from leaving the country, to abscond overseas.
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which → defy → country
This small country of fewer than 4 million people has nonetheless acquired new geopolitical significance this year, during the Iran war, owing to its 1,000 km coastline along the Red Sea shipping route between the Mediterranean and Asia.
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country → acquire → Mediterranean
The route has proved a critical alternative to the Strait of Hormuz, which was the primary export route for Gulf energy shipments before it was effectively closed by the conflict.
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it → prove → conflict
Attacks on Red Sea trading vessels by Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen, which faces Eritrea across the route's southern chokepoint, have made Eritrean waters potentially the most secure transit corridor.
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waters → back → chokepoint
"Eritrea sits astride some of the world's hottest geographical real estate," said Murithi Mutiga, Africa program director at the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think-tank.
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Mutiga → sit → Group
"The war in the Gulf has highlighted the importance of the Red Sea as an alternative outlet for that region.
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war → highlight → region
It's no wonder outside powers are courting Asmara.
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powers → court → Asmara
"
There have been signs of warming ties with the world: Last week, Washington removed its sanctions on Eritrea, which were imposed over the role of the country's military in the Tigray conflict in Ethiopia in 2020-22.
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which → warm → 2020
The State Department said the Trump administration made the decision "to advance US regional interests."
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administration → say → interests
Reuters interviewed several senior government figures during a recent trip to Eritrea, as well as dozens of Eritreans at home and abroad, to piece together a picture of a society largely walled off from the modern world.
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Reuters → interview → world
The officials pressed a consistent message: Eritrea is ready to engage and trade, they said.
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they → press → message
It is prepared to open up to investors keen to tap its gold, copper and potash.
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It → open → gold
It is looking at reforming its school system to give young people more say over their destiny.
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It → look → destiny
Yet beneath these aspirations lies a state shaped by its leaders' iron conviction that national survival depends on stringent internal security and military vigilance against Ethiopia, its larger neighbor.
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survival → lie → Ethiopia
In recent years, the countries have been at loggerheads over landlocked Ethiopia's demands that Eritrea grant it commercial and naval access to the Red Sea, particularly the port of Assab near their border.
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Eritrea → grant → border
Ethiopia, which had access to the coastline for decades before Eritrea broke away, has cast maritime access as a matter of urgent national security.
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Eritrea → have → security
Meanwhile, Asmara has said it fears Addis Ababa will try to take Assab by force.
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Ababa → say → force
Getachew Reda, the Ethiopian premier's adviser on regional affairs, said Addis Ababa has never threatened to use force or violate Eritrea's sovereignty.
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Ababa → say → sovereignty
He said that Eritrea poses a security threat because of its readiness to fund insurgencies within Ethiopia, an allegation denied by Asmara.
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Eritrea → say → Asmara
Getachew said access to the Red Sea is a matter of economic necessity for Ethiopia, a country of 130 million people, and that his government is willing to come to a peaceful arrangement with Eritrea such as a long-term lease deal on the use of ports.
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government → say → ports
Last week, the countries cut diplomatic ties, with Ethiopia expelling Eritrean diplomats and Asmara retaliating.
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Asmara → cut → diplomats
Eritrea has not always been isolated from the West; it enjoyed friendly relations with the US and several European nations in the years following its independence before diplomatic ties collapsed in 2001 when Asmara cracked down on political opponents and journalists.
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Asmara → isolate → opponents
THE CAPITAL ABOVE THE CLOUDS
Asmara, Eritrea's highland capital, seems a city suspended in time.
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Asmara → seem → time
Elderly men, many of them veterans with wheelchairs or crutches, linger over macchiatos at dusk beneath fading Italian signs at Bar Vittoria and Bar America, legacies of the Italian colonial rule that preceded Ethiopian control.
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that → linger → control
Tightly controlled internet access is sparse and slow.
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access → control → ?
Few people bother staring at phones.
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people → bother → phones
Young people drink unlabeled bottles of beer from the state-owned factory.
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people → drink → factory
…and 54 more, not listed.
The Aporia
