The Eritrean army is in a pathetic state of collapse
Tigrai Onlne - April 09, 2014
The tiny nation of Eritrea in the Horn of Africa is collapsing in every way. Eritrea which is dubbed the North Korea of Africa is the second youngest nation in Africa next to South Sudan. Ruled by an ego maniac dictator for the past 22 years, the country has fought with all it’s neighbors.
Eritrea has fought with the Sudan, Yemen, Djibouti and Ethiopia in the short years it existed as a country. The Eritrean gangsters in power thought they can intimidate the neighboring countries by building a huge ragtag army of forced conscripts.
When Eritrea gained it’s independence, it was in a bad condition from the thirty years of war. Isaias Afwerki the president for life of Eritrea and his cronies thought the best way to build the Eritrean economy was by stealing from where ever they can. To support the over sized army which was 10% of the total population, they stole coffee from Ethiopia, diamond from Congo and mercury from everywhere.
The number of conscripted solders gave them wrong sense of power. Then they committed a fatal mistake, they attacked Ethiopia. That was the beginning of their undoing.
Fourteen years after the unprovoked attack on Ethiopia, Eritrea has been sinking in to a black hole it could not get out. The Eritrean economy is in shambles and there are long lines for bread, water, sugar and gasoline.
The worst thing is the Eritrean army exists only in a name. According to Gedab news which is an opposition news site, “several companies of the Eritrean army are being hallowed at alarming rates. Due to serious desertion of conscripts, many squads ceased to exist and platoons have been downgraded to the level of squads. At the same time, the size of companies has decreased to that of a platoon, in some instances to a lesser size.”
The whole county is broke and the youth have lost hope in their country. Many Eritreans want change desperately, but they don’t know how to bring about a real change. If it wasn’t for the goodwill of the Ethiopian government, the Ethiopian army can overrun the borders in a few months. There are almost 100 thousand Eritrean refugees in four camps in Tigrai State northern Ethiopia.
Year after year Afwerki blames the United States and Ethiopia for all the ills of his country even though he is responsible for 99% of Eritrea’s problems.
In the eyes of the Eritrean mafia in the government the Eritrean people, UN, EU, AU, USA and all the rest of the international community are wrong. The only problem with that is why are all the people leaving the country including the army? Gedab said, “The army is in a crisis. It has also been plagued by desertion to the extent that members of the army, mostly conscripts, have returned to their units after a leave or after an assignment, only to find that their units have disintegrated. They are usually told to return home and wait for further instruction.”
Two weeks ago two senior army generals and a civilian, Brigadier General Amanuel Haile aka “Hanjema” , Brigadier General Mebrahtu Tekleab aka “Vaynak”, and Mr. Desu Tesfatsion died in what was reported as a car accident. There are speculations those men were anti the Isaias government and their death might have been not an accident.
This is not something to gloat about for Ethiopians because despite what most people think the failure of Eritrea as a nation is not good for all the neighbors especially for Ethiopia. Ethiopia would not want another Somalia right on her neck.
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