Isaias Afwerki

Isaias Afwerki (ኢሳይያስ ኣፍወርቂ, ; born 2 February 1946) is an Eritrean politician and partisan who has been the president of Eritrea since shortly after he led the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) to victory on 24 May 1991, ending the 30-year-old war for independence from Ethiopia.

In addition to being president, Isaias has been the chairman of Eritrea's sole legal political party, the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ).

As Eritrea has never had a functioning constitution, no elections, no legislature and no published budget, Isaias has been the sole power in the country, controlling its judiciary and military.

Hence, scholars and historians have long considered him to be a dictator, described his regime as totalitarian, by way of forced conscription; the United Nations and Amnesty International cited him for human rights violations.

In 2022, Reporters Without Borders ranked Eritrea, under the government of Isaias, last out of 180 countries in its Press Freedom Index.

In 2023 Eritrea ranked 174th out of 180 countries on the Press Freedom Index.

Isaias Afwerki was born on 2 February 1946 in the Aba Shi'Aul district of Asmara, Eritrea.

His father, whose native village was Salot, just outside of Asmara, was a minor functionary in the state Tobacco Monopoly.

His mother was descended from Tigrayan immigrants from the Enderta area.

Isaias attended Prince Makonnen High School (PMSS).

In the early 1960s, he joined the nationalist Eritrean student movement.

In 1965, he began his studies at the College of Engineering at Haile Selassie I University (now called Addis Ababa University) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

In September 1966, Isaias left university and traveled to Kassala, Sudan, via Asmara to join the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF).

In 1967, the Chinese government donated light weapons and a small amount of cash to cover the cost of transport and provided training to ELF combatants.

Isaias was among the first recruits that went to China in 1967 for political commissar training where he studied Maoism as well as the strategy and tactics of guerrilla warfare.

Upon his return in 1968, Isaias was appointed as a political commissioner of the ELF's Christian Zone 5 in the Hamasien 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 ELF members led to the deflection 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 deflectors held a meeting at Tekli (northern Red Sea) and founded the Selfi Natsinet (“Party of Independence“) and 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 (“We and Our Goals”), 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 (PLF), 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 Tigrinya 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 third group, the Obel faction led by 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 (EPLF) in August 1973.

Internal agitation soon arose when long-time veterans began to accuse Isaias of being authoritarian, which ended with the execution of eleven EPLF leaders in August 1974.

The Ethiopian Civil War began shortly after the beginning of the military junta Derg regime in 1974, and the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) fought against the government with the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF).

In 1977, EPLF held its first congress, at which Isaias was elected vice-secretary general.

As a leader of the Eritrean rebellion against Ethiopia's annexation of the Eritrean coastal region in 1977, Isaias became an icon of resistance.

During the second congress of the EPLF in 1987, he was elevated to the status of secretary-general of the organization.

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.

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 (PFDJ) 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.