The Hunger Crisis in Eritrea — Explained
Eritrea is currently going through a terrible hunger crisis. The transportation ban that the unelected regime initiated as a response to COVID-19 has worsened a food and water crisis that already was devastating the population. The markets are almost empty of supplies and people cannot afford the little food that exists. Everyone calling their family members in Eritrea are met with the same sentence: “we are hungry”.
Eritrean regime officials like to frame the situation as a “Poor African country doing its best” but in fact, what they are doing is enacting policies and withholding resources with the sole intention to hurt and control the Eritrean people. Since we have seen many wonder how they could donate or support the people inside Eritrea, we thought it would be helpful to first break down the current situation and its causes before suggesting how we could best help.
The next article in this series will address the water crisis in Eritrea.
1. Food shortage
In Eritrea, you can buy food from government shops, privately owned shops or through trade with close-by domestic and foreign markets.
Government shops: Every family has a ‘coupon’ that specifies how many people are a part of the household. This number determines how much basic food supplies you are allowed to buy from the government shops. The allowances per family member depend on what area you live in. These coupons have a dual function: the regime forces families to constantly prove how many members are in the household to make sure they are not buying more food than they are entitled to and in doing that, the coupon system is also used as a means of controlling people. The regime uses it to keep track if someone has fled for eg and often, the family left behind is punished for this. There is always a shortage of food in these shops because the government does not import enough food. With the ban on transportation, the already little supply has decreased dramatically. The lack of food in these shops is a deliberate political decision by the regime.
Private shops: The government shops do not have all the necessary supplies which means that people have to go to the private shops as well. These shops have not been able to import any food from domestic farmers due to the ban on transportation. And they could not import food from neighbouring countries either because of hostile relations or restrictions of cross border movement of people and goods. As a result, local private shops are only selling what they had in storage.
Trade with close-by domestic and foreign markets: Many communities depend on trading with close-by markets, domestic and foreign. Many travel to other villages and cities to sell what they harvest and buy what they need; but under the strictest lockdown they cannot do so anymore. This practice was already under threat as the government regularly would take what people harvest and sell it for a high price in their stores. Border communities are dependent on trade with Sudan and Yemen. The hunger crisis on the coast is currently extreme because their closest trading partners in Ethiopia, Djibouti and across the Red Sea in Yemen are beyond the traders’ reach because of the government’s conflicts with the neighbouring countries and restrictions on transportation.
Asmara, Eritrea
2. The food is too expensive
The very little food that exists has always been expensive but the current shortages have further skyrocketed prices.
The main issue is that the purchasing power of the Eritrean currency Nakfa (ERN) has plummeted. In 2016, the regime declared that it was changing the currency and demanded that people bring in all their money to the bank. When exchanging the old currency for the “new” currency, Eritreans had to explain how they got the money in the first place. Citizens who had large amounts of legitimate money but were unable to or too afraid that their explanation would not satisfy the authorities watched their money expire. But the powerful and those connected, had no problem ‘exchanging’ their money — no matter how large and irrespective of its source. After depositing their money, they were only allowed to withdraw from the bank a maximum of 5,000 nakfa per month (357.1 USD).
Before the currency change: 1 USD was 45.1 ERN
After the currency change: 1 USD became 14 ERN
The currency depreciated with 70%.
The regime has fixed the currency so it has not changed since 2016.
Despite the drop in the value of the currency, the prices (including food prices) have not decreased to reflect the devalued currency. 60% of the population are a part of the mandatory national service. Their monthly salary is approximately 500 ERN (equivalent of $37) or less. This salary is meant to support the conscripts’ entire family as well as. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the regime is only paying the conscripts half of their ‘salary’, which is 250 ERN (equivalent of $18.5) They are saying they need to save the other half to fight the virus. How will a family dependent on this salary afford to buy any food when the prices are this expensive?
Current prices:
Berbere (chili powder used in most Eritrean dishes) = 300 ERN = $21.4 per/kg
Oil = 300 ERN = $21.4 per/litre
Coffee = 110 ERN = $7.85 per/kg
Sugar = 50 ERN = $3.5 per/kg
Onion = 17 ERN = $1.20 per/kg
Tomatoes = 9.20 ERN = $0.65 per/kg
The UN Special Rapporteur on Eritrea recently sounded the alarm bell regarding the situation of hunger in the country. She wrote:
I am concerned that the COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbating the situation of famine and malnutrition that exists in parts of the country and is contributing to food shortages, in part due to the border closure and the restrictions on food imports currently in place. For example, recent reports indicate that disadvantaged populations in and around the towns of Massawa and Assab and in the regions bordering Ethiopia and Sudan have been experiencing severe food shortages.
Daniela Kravetz, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea.
3. People in Eritrea have no money
As previously explained, whereas the salaries for a majority of the population are very low, many citizens are unsalaried or meagerly paid national service conscripts. Small businesses are also suffering, being required to pay their full rent and pay their staff their regular salaries without any support from the government.
Most Eritreans depend on support from family members abroad. Since the regime’s response to COVID-19 began, the public has faced massive obstacles to accessing the money sent from abroad. When they try to go collect the money, many have reportedly waited for several hours just to be asked to come back the day after and try again. Due to the ban on transportation, people living far away from the capital city Asmara are unable to travel and collect their money. People living relatively close are walking to Asmara to collect their money, with many sleeping in the line to ensure that they do not miss their spot.
Family members in the diaspora are sending cargo loads filled with food supplies to Eritrea but many of these have reportedly been intercepted by the regime without an explanation.
4. The regime is hiding their money raised in the diaspora to “fight COVID-19”
In March, the Eritrean diaspora was encouraged by embassies and regime officials to raise funds to help fight COVID-19 in the country. According to the Eritrean Minister of Information, $2.7 million was raised in the US alone. There are no records of how much money was raised worldwide. Many Eritreans wanted to do their share but they do not want to donate money because they do not trust the regime.
The regime has still not reported how this money has been used. According to Radio Erena, an Eritrean independent radio station based in Paris, the money was collected from each country and sent to bank accounts in Russia and was never sent to Eritrea. A few years ago, Western countries started clamping down on the regime’s practice to force diaspora Eritreans to pay 2% of their salary. In fear of potential sanctions and their accounts getting frozen, the regime started stashing away funds in countries where they can more freely move it (Russia, Egypt and China).
Eritrean Minister of Information claims $2.7 million was raised in the US alone
5. What can we do?
Immediate support — DONATE: Send money directly to your family members. Even though it is difficult for the money to reach them and may not enable them to buy much, it is one of only two things we can do to help right now. If you do not have any family members inside Eritrea but would like to help, you please get in touch with us and we will connect you with people who do or general fundraisers that have been set up.
Immediate support — SEND SUPPLIES: However difficult it may be, sending non-perishable food supplies to relatives, friends and strangers is another way that we could help.
Intermediate and long term support — PUT PRESSURE: Pressure the Eritrean regime to implement the necessary changes for the situation to change. Some of these changes would be to relax the ban on transportation, import more food, end the water shortage, stop fixing the currency and pay the conscripts livable salaries. Sign this petition with the demands or attend/organise a protest in your city. if you are interested in joining a community of people fighting against the Eritrean regime, go to onedayseyoum.org/join.
We are also open to alternative ways and methods that you may know and have. So please share with us your knowledge and experiences in these difficult times so we could better assist our people.
Thank you to Meron Estefanos (freelance journalist), Amanuel Ghirmai (journalist at Radio Erena), Prof. Awet T. Weldemichael (Professor at Queen’s University) and Ibrahim Afarensis (Red Sea Afar Human Rights Organisation) for your invaluable support in putting this article together.