The article highlights the comparison of Eritrea to North Korea, noting that this label, while controversial, has persisted. The comparison is drawn from Eritrea's authoritarian government, its history of conflict, and its high rate of emigration.
The article points out Eritrea's long and bloody wars: its war of liberation from Ethiopia (1960s-1991), and its subsequent war with Ethiopia (1998-2000). This period of protracted conflict is one of the reasons for the comparison with North Korea.
The article also emphasizes that Eritrea was Africa's largest source of refugees to Europe between 2014 and 2016, contributing to the label of the "world's fastest-emptying nation." This massive outflow of its population is another parallel drawn between Eritrea and North Korea.
The article briefly mentions comparisons to Cuba and East Germany, indicating that Eritrea's authoritarian nature and repressive regime are key factors in these international comparisons.
By T.G. | ADDIS ABABA
ERITREA has had some unhappy claims to fame over the years. Its war of liberation from neighbouring Ethiopia, which began in the 1960s and only ended in 1991, was one of Africa’s longest-running conflicts. Then, as a newly independent country, it fought a war with Ethiopia between 1998 and 2000, one of the bloodiest in the continent’s history, which only formally ended on July 8th of this year. Eritrea was Africa’s largest single source of refugees to Europe from 2014 to 2016. Over the past decade so many people have left that Eritrea has been called the world’s fastest-emptying nation. It has been likened to Cuba and the former East Germany. But in recent years no title has proven more durable (or more controversial) than that of “Africa’s North Korea”.
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