Draconian military conscription rules in Eritrea mean children as young as 18 can be forced into duty.
Eritrea, a small country in the Horn of Africa with a tiny population, is experiencing a demographic catastrophe caused by the flight of its young population. Many analysts are now worried that if this emigration trend continues at the current rate, the country’s society and state institutions will become dysfunctional.
Eritrea’s population is less than five million and in the past two decades hundreds of thousands of young Eritreans have fled and continue to flee the country.
Cities, towns and villages have a shortage of young people because they have crossed into neighbouring countries, leaving behind older people and children, according to a recent visitor to that country. Young Eritreans still in the country plan to leave because they see no future in the country.
What is also extremely worrying is that teenagers and children who should be in school and under the care of their parents are also crossing into neighbouring countries. Many commentators are suggesting the rate at which Eritreans are fleeing the country is unprecedented and it is resulting in the destruction of the productive sector of its demographic profile.
But why are Eritreans fleeing the country? The main reason is the leadership’s style of control and governance is based on military totalitarianism.
Compulsory national service for all young Eritreans, which doesn’t have a time limit, effectively makes them exist in limbo and without a future. Analysts describe Eritrea as an open prison where citizens’ everyday life is highly controlled, surveilled and regimented.
Members of Pentecostal and Evangelical churches are persecuted and imprisoned. There is no rule of law in the country because there is no constitution. There is no freedom of movement and young Eritreans are arbitrarily rounded up, imprisoned and in most cases forcibly conscripted. All Eritreans require an exit visa to leave the country and it is extremely difficult for young Eritreans to obtain an exit visa. Young Eritreans leave the country “illegally”, crossing borders into neighbouring countries.
Instead of seriously investigating the causes of this emigration trend, the leadership continues to deny this crisis is occurring. Instead of relaxing totalitarian rule and making reforms, the government appears to turn a blind eye to a situation that will soon result in a complete breakdown of the country’s productive human capital.
There are hundreds of thousands of young Eritreans in Uganda, Ethiopia and Sudan and thousands have arrived in Europe by travelling along dangerous trails across the Sahara Desert, Libya and the Mediterranean Sea.
The trend of young people fleeing the country is turning Eritrea into a demographic wasteland as a disproportionate number of young, productive Eritreans flee never to come back.
Dr Amanuel Isak Tewolde is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Centre for Social Development in Africa at the University of Johannesburg