ICC Note: The world is becoming increasingly aware of the gross Christian persecution going on in Eritrea. The totalitarian government tortures, rapes, starves, imprisons and arbitrarily executes people the state considers to be its enemies. This kind of policy places Christians directly in the cross hairs of ruling authorities who remain paranoid of any group that seeks to assemble groups the government fears may become a rebel movement. The momentum from a United Nations (UN) report released last week detailing “crimes against humanity” perpetrated by the Eritrean government is shedding more light on the plight of believers in a hostile land.

By Julia A. Seymour

6/15/15 Eritrea (WORLD) – The government of Eritrea rules its people by fear and control in a “totalitarian” state, according to a new United Nations report. Amid rampant human rights violations and religious persecution, Eritreans are fleeing the country in a wave of migration second only to the flood of Syrians trying to escape their country’s bloody conflicts.

President Isaias Afwerki tightly controls Eritrea, which gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993. The government maintains control through its security forces, a spy network, and an extensive surveillance state. According to the UN, the government uses a “pervasive control system” in “absolute arbitrariness to keep the population in a state of permanent anxiety.”

“It is not law that rules Eritreans—but fear,” UN officials said in the press release for the new report.

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