Isaias Afwerki
Isaias Afwerki is an Eritrean politician and dictator who has served as the president of Eritrea since its independence in 1993 and the chairman of the People's Front for Democracy and Justice since 1994.
Isaias joined the pro-independence Eritrean Liberation Front in 1966 and quickly rose through the ranks to become its leader in 1970, before defecting to form the Eritrean People's Liberation Front. Having consolidated power within this group, he led pro-independence forces to victory on 24 May 1991, ending the 30-year-old war for independence from Ethiopia, before being elected president of the newly founded country of Eritrea two years later.
Western scholars and historians have long considered Isaias to be a dictator, with Eritrea's constitution remaining unenforced, electoral institutions effectively being nonexistent, and a policy of mass conscription. The United Nations and Amnesty International have cited him for human rights violations. In 2024, Reporters Without Borders ranked Eritrea, under the government of Isaias, last out of 180 countries in its Press Freedom Index, lower than North Korea.
Early life and education
Isaias Afwerki was born on 2 February 1946 in the Aba Shi'Aul district of Asmara, Eritrea. His father, whose native village was Tselot, just outside of Asmara, was a minor functionary in the state tobacco monopoly; his mother was a housewife.Isaias spent most of his youth in Asmara. He attended Prince Makonnen High School where he engaged in discussions about nationalist Eritrean politics. In 1965, he began his studies at the College of Engineering at Haile Selassie I University in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, but due to lower scores in his first-year first semester he was supposed to retake the first semester which he didn't. However, he maintained his interest in Eritrean politics and informed his friends that he was planning to join the Eritrean rebels in the field.
Eritrean War of Independence
In September 1966, Isaias, along with Haile Woldense and Mussie Tesfamichael, traveled to Kassala, Sudan, via Asmara to join the Eritrean Liberation Front. Isaias and his comrades had assumed the ELF was an inclusive revolutionary organization, but they soon realized that the movement was sectarian and generally hostile to Christians. Isaias, Haile and Mussie decided to organize subvertly, forming a secret clandestine cell. To seal their pact, the three men signed an oath with their own blood, carving an 'E' on their right arms, symbolizing their determination to die for Eritrea. In 1967, the Chinese government took in five ELF recruits for political commissar training, including Isaias. There, he studied Maoism as well as the strategy and tactics of guerrilla warfare. On his return trip, he was arrested by Saudi Arabian authorities while attempting to cross the Red Sea on a dhow. He was released nearly six months later.Upon his return in 1968, Isaias was appointed as a political commissioner of the ELF's Zone 5 in the Dekibarek region. He and other ELF members began to criticize the sectarian tendencies of the ELF. In 1969, further power struggles among the ELF leadership and the assassination of several Christian members led to the defection of the ELF's Zone 5, which included Isaias. This group of around seventy fighters, led by Abraham Tewolde, withdrew to an isolated locality, Ala in northeast of the Akele Guzay near Dekemhare, where they were joined by another small contingent of Kebessa fighters under Mesfin Hagos, together they became known as the Ala group. Following Tewolde's death in late 1970, Isaias became the leader of the group.
In August 1971, this group of Christian defectors held a meeting at Tekli and founded the Selfi Natsinet. They elected a leadership consisting of Isaias, Mesfin Hagos, Tewolde Eyob, Solomon Woldemariam and Asmerom Gerezgiher. They then issued a highly polemical document written by Isaias called, Nihnan Elamanan, in which they explained the rationale for their decision to create a separate political organization instead of working within the ELF. The document accused the ELF of discriminating against Christian highlanders and killing reformist Christian ELF members. The document instead stressed the unity of the Eritrean nation and called for a "revolutionary organization with a revolutionary line". In August 1971, Selfi Natsinet joined the Popular Liberation Forces, forming a loose alliance with two other splinter groups, these three groups were jointly represented by Osman Saleh Sabbe.
In February 1972, the ELF declared war on the PLF, resulting in a civil war that would last until 1974. During this time, a significant number of Asmara high school and University of Addis Ababa students were recruited, which resulted in the Selfi Natsinet becoming the most powerful group within the PLF. A major crisis occurred when the Obel faction, led by the former Sudanese army NCO Abu Tayyara, left the group in April 1973. Isaias then called for a more unified administration and military force, which led to the emergence of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front in August 1973. Internal agitation soon arose when the Marxist faction, led by his old friend Mussie Tesfamichael, called for more radical policies and began to accuse the movement of being too authoritarian. Isaias denounced his rivals in a publication and mobilized his supporters to arrest Mussie and other colleagues. After a brief trial, all eleven EPLF leaders, including Mussie, were executed on 11 August 1974. In 1977, EPLF held its first congress, at which Isaias was elected vice-secretary general.
Although Isaias had to initially share power with others who led the EPLF, by the early 1980s, he was able to transform it into the movement he envisioned. The EPLF became a tough nationalist organization controlled by a highly centralized inner party which made all the important decisions. From the mid-1980s, Isaias made a bid to marginalize the political core of the EPLF's founding leadership and pack the political bodies with men unwaveringly loyal to him. This coincided with the second congress of the EPLF in 1987, when he was elevated to the status of secretary-general of the organization. According to Dan Connell, this was approximately when Isaias took unquestioned control of the EPLF. As the leader of the Eritrean struggle against Ethiopian rule, Isaias became the icon of the resistance. In April 1991, the EPLF took Asmara from Ethiopian forces; the following month, they drove out Derg troops in the area. After the Derg was overthrown by the EPRDF on 28 May, Isaias quickly obtained U.S. support for Eritrean independence; in June 1991, his organization announced their desire to hold a United Nations-sponsored referendum.
Presidency (1993–present)
Independence of Eritrea
In April 1993, a United Nations-supervised referendum on independence was held, and the following month Eritrea achieved de jure independence. Isaias was elected as the president of the State of Eritrea by the National Assembly and declared the first head of state, a position he has held ever since the end of the war for independence.On 16 February 1994, the EPLF held its third congress, renamed itself the People's Front for Democracy and Justice as part of its transition to a political party, and Isaias was elected secretary-general by an overwhelming majority of votes. Isaias undertook a series of economic reforms. In May 1994, he implemented a national service program in which individuals would serve for 18 months. Military training was the focus for the first six months, followed by awareness of the country and expansion of its agricultural sector.
Domestic policy
Elections
In his first few years Isaias was hailed as a new type of African president with then-US President Bill Clinton referring to him as a "renaissance African leader". However, in 1997, a new constitution was drawn up, but never enacted, and elections were cancelled. In an April 2000 speech at Princeton University, Isaias said that "constitutionality, political pluralism and free and fair elections are naturally the best institutional tools" for achieving economic prosperity given the political and cultural realities of a specific country. However, a parliamentary election scheduled in 2001 was later postponed indefinitely. Although police are responsible for upholding internal security and the armed forces' external security, eyewitness reports exist of the armed forces engaging with demobilizing soldiers or civilian militias to complete the hybrid tasks of both. Civil authorities sometimes involve themselves with security forces in an abuse of power. In 2014, Isaias declared the 1997 constitution to be "dead" and announced plans for a new constitution. However, as of 2025, no new constitution has been proposed.In 2018, Isaias' former comrade, Andebrhan Welde Giorgis, said that Isaias went on to personalise power, and "having personalised power, he abused it to the maximum". Notwithstanding, during the African Unity summit in Cairo in 1993, Isaias had criticized other leaders for staying in power for too long, and he had also rejected a cult of personality.
In 2001, 15 ministers, later dubbed the G-15, wrote an open letter calling for reform. On 18 September 2001, Afwerki closed all independent national press and prominent opposition leaders were arrested. 11 of the G-15 were arrested and as of 2025 have not been released. In 2010, when asked when elections would be held, he responded "Let's wait 3 or 4 decades".
Economics
In 2009, Isaias advocated for the development of indigenous political and economic institutions and a strategy that suited Eritrea's internal conditions and available resources. The key elements were to include ambitious infrastructure development campaigns both in terms of power, transport, and telecommunications, as well as with basic healthcare and educational facilities.According to the World Bank, Eritrea's recent growth has been associated with the agricultural and mining sectors. Real GDP grew by 12 percent in 2018, but fell 2.7 percent from 2015 to 2018. Deflation existed from 2016 to 2018 due to a currency change, and continued in 2018 after economic and trade ties with Ethiopia were reestablished.On 18 May 2012, Isaias said in a VOA interview that the country's development over two decades of independence was "a success story". As a result of regional insecurity in 1998, Eritrea has a strong fiscal policy caused by a sharp drop in capital spending and reductions in revenue. Fiscal pressures, however, are likely to increase.