The Geneva Council for Rights and Liberties (GCRL) expressed its deep concern on the severe deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Eritrea and the Red Sea region of Afar and calls on the international community to join hands to help save the desperate population there.
GCRL also highlighted in a press release, that Eritrea’s ruling People’s Front is using starvation as an extreme measure to suppress the civilian population of the Afar region of the red sea, in addition to exercising genocide and compulsory displacement against them. According to local human rights sources, the regime ordered the closure of land and sea borders, under the pretext of fighting the Coronavirus outbreak, without taking any preventive and precautionary measures against this global health crisis, leaving the citizens of the region suffocating under siege.
These measures, that pose serious threats to the citizens, are clear violations of human rights and a blatant challenge to the principles and covenants of the United Nations. The population of the entire region is at great risk of starvation due to lockdown and food stock depletion without any other food and drug alternative sources.
Since last April, the Eritrean government has evacuated all hospitals and obliged pregnants, women’s newborns, and other patients to leave ‘Asab’ Hospital, and has closed most health facilities in the region and left patients facing their fate on their own, in total disregard for their health conditions.
The Geneva Council for Rights and Liberties (GCRL) drew attention to the deterioration of people’s lives in Eritrea and in the region of Afa and called for an immediate end to the government’s neglect of the region and urged it to make all efforts to respect humanitarian standards in the country.
