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Declaration on the atrocities committed by the EPLF Regime on Red Sea Afars

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Declaration on the atrocities committed by the EPLF Regime on 
Red Sea Afars
The gang that calls itself “EPLF” has, since its establishment back in 1971,  
committed atrocities (mass killings/genocides, rape, robbery and other barbaric acts) to 
the Eritrean people in general and to the Red Sea Afars in particular. To the dismay of 
the Eritrean people who expected eventual peace and social calm after independence  
(1991), the clique imposed poverty and insecurity upon the people. What is worse, with 
the barbaric and undisclosed intent of evacuating and ethnic cleansing of the Red Sea 
Afars from their original area, the group has mass killed thousands of Afars in places 
of  Bori,  Gelealo  and  other  places.   Consequently,  evidences  of  the  atrocities 
committed that of ethnic cleansing of the Afar people have been found and many bodies 
of the victims have been exhumed recently. 
Although the regime has done all it could to hide and destroy evidences, hard  
evidences have been found in various places. In addition, bodies of 500 victims that had 
been  buried  under  the “warsay Yikealo ”  campaign  of  the regime  had  been  exhumed 
recently. 
Those barbaric acts had so far consumed innocent civilians from places of Bori, 
Rahiyta and other places without any legal and political reasons and above all, the  
whereabouts of countless others is not known to date. Close family members of the  
victims and the disappeared ones were also victims of terror and insecurity. 
We,  the  people  of  the  Red  Sea  Afars,  therefore,  plea  to  human  right 
institutions, Human Rights Watch dogs and other concerned institutions and friends of 
the Afar people, to act together and baldly fight back the clear and present inhumane 
acts of the Eritrean regime on the Red Sea Afars and demand for the regime leaders,  
especially Issayas Aferwerki and his top military leaders to be tried for the crimes they 
have committed against mankind. Above all, we demand that the world shall know about 
the ethnic cleansing and genocide on the Afar people of the Red Sea. 
A communiqué on the status of Red Sea Afar Refugees and the issues 
that need to be addressed by the UNHCR
It is clear and undeniable that the Red Sea Afars are now escaping the ethnic  
cleansing by the Eritrean regime and are now flocking to neighboring countries in  
numbers. It is also a fact that Ethiopia is now the main “safe haven” for the Red Sea  
Afar refugees mainly because their rights are greatly respected there. We take this  
liberty  to  express  our  brotherly  appreciation  to  the  peoples  and  government  of 
Ethiopia for the genuine service they have extended so far.  

It is known that Red Sea Afar refugees are now residing in two camps established 
inside Ethiopia; Berahle  and Aysaita areas.  The Ethiopian government  through its  
Refugees and Returnees Office (RRO), is extending all it could to address issues of the 
refugees in its maximum capacity.  
However, the responsible international organization-the UNHCR-the one that is 
held accountable for such issues, as per our belief, needs to address the following  
issues in due care, which are now threats to the day-to-day lives of the refugees and  
to the sustainable management of the refugees in general. These are:-
1. The unnecessary and delayed screening which in some cases take up to one 
year  are  hindering  refugees  from  getting  food  aid  and  other  basic 
necessities in those camps;
2. There is no legal body that facilitates entry of refuges in those camps. As 
a result,  refuges  are facing  challenges.  In concentration camps  like 
Elida’ar, Erebti, and Dalol, Red Sea Afar refugees are starving to a great 
a extent and there are no UNHCR offices in those camps to facilitate the 
food aid;
3. In Berahle and Aysaita camps, refugees get as low as 15kg of barley, 45kg 
of bean, and 1 ½ lit. of edible oil per month, which are hardly enough to 
sustain life.  Except for those, they are not receiving any life-saving  
nutrients;
4. What is worse, the above mentioned rations come irregularly, and come as 
late as every three months and this is forcing refugees to starve and  
leave the camps in search of food aid;
5. Many refugees especially children are suffering from lack of nutrients  
and from lack of basic medical supplies. Significant number of children  
and women are also suffering to death because of the above mentioned  
fact;
6. Refugees who are eligible to higher level education are denied of their  
right and are wasting their valuable time being idle;
7. Red Sea Afars are denied of the right to go to other countries, which is  
granted to other Eritrean refugees;
8. Many Red Sea Afars who escaped with their lives but without their ID are 
not  considered  as  refugees  (are  not  given  the  refugee  status).  
Consequently, they are not treated as refugees at all;

9. Other Red Sea Afars who have IDs are not treated as refugees for the  
lame reason that they are Ethiopians not Eritreans, and they are starved 
to death outside those camps.
For reasons and challenges mentioned above, Red Sea Afars are now facing unbearable 
problems. We, therefore, appeal to the UNHCR and to other humanitarian agencies to  
work for the causes of human dignity and respect the refugee rights of the Red Sea  
Afars. It is a well known fact that the Afar people are peaceful and never in history  
were they source of discontent for the region they belong at present. They were, and 
in fact are, guardians of the main lands of countries of the horn, namely Ethiopia,  
Eritrea and Djibouti, from outside aggressions. In the 30 years of struggle for liberty, 
the  Red  Sea  Afars  have  fought  blatantly  with  other  groups  and  in  the  1994 
Referendum, more than 95% of voters cast their ballot for freedom, hoping the long  
awaited taste of freedom would be realized.  Above all, Red Sea Afars expected mutual 
respect, prosperity, rule of law, tranquility, and development of one’s language to be 
exercised. To the dismay of the above mentioned hopes, the people of Eritrea in general 
and the Red Sea Afars in particular faced with an all time dictatorial regime, with the 
barbaric intention of iron curtailing Eritrea from the rest of the world and with  
destructive policy against neighboring countries.   The regime had gone to support  
rebel groups in countries as far as Srilanka and Somalia and is registered as state-
sponsored  terrorist  group  by  the  State  Department  of  the  US  government.  Its 
aggressive measures on those who try to oppose it are inhumane. One of the victims of 
those groups are the Red Sea Afars. At present, these people are suffering from ethnic 
cleansing and genocide by the dictatorial EPLF regime. 
We, the people of Red Sea Afar, are very much surprised to witness the blind eye 
stance the international community has taken on the matter. We strongly believe that 
international community will be responsible in the eyes of history in the years to come. 
We  would  also  like  to  reiterate  our  heartfelt  appreciation  for  those  who  are 
revealing the untold stories of our people’s plight. We, at this moment, would like to  
use the words of the famous South African anti- Apartheid freedom fighter, Reverend  
Desmound Tutu, who once said “the voice of the people is the voice of GOD”. We say to  
friends of the Red Sea Afars, “Reveal the plights of the people to the world”. 
The strategic evacuation and genocide are manifested in the disappearance of up 
to 500 people in the Red Sea area and the changing of street names, village names, and 
other priceless social assets that were sentimental to the people who are using them. 
The regime also employs terror and other barbaric tactics to evacuate residents out of 
the area. As a result of this, people are migrating out of their original homeland to  
neighboring countries. This may be taken as a solution, but not a viable one. We the  
people strongly believe that recognition of basic human rights and respect of the rule 
of law will eventually lead for a sustainable and peaceful life in Eritrea.  

Conclusion 
Today’s history of the Red Sea Afars goes beyond present day generation. The  
course, in due time, follows different paths of conflicting ideas and the way people  
handle to solve depends on the nature and extent of the conflicts. 
Although it is evident that various political groups in the name of the Eritrean 
people have started struggle in and outside Eritrea, their implicit as well as explicit  
objectives on the Red Sea Afars are more or less similar. For instance, the Eritrean  
Liberation Front (Jebha), up on its establishment in 1960 in Cairo, Egypt, its sole  
objective was to liberate “mother Eritrea” from Ethiopian annexation. The major outlet 
for the importation of light weapons and artilleries the ELF and the safe haven for  
logistical support and for organizing the mass were the Dancalia (former name of the  
Red Sea area) region. However, the people of the Red Sea area were among the first  
groups to be victims of ELF; although the people waited patiently