Ethiopia ‘fully accepts peace deal’ to end Eritrea border war

Ethiopia’s governing coalition announced on Tuesday that it will accept and implement the peace deal with Eritrea from 2000 that stopped the 1998-2000 border war. It is still unclear how Eritrea is going to respond. Petros Tesfagiorgis, prominent Eritrean writer, stated that we should use this window of opportunity to create a powerful peace movement.

The rival leaders of Libya, a departure point for thousands of refugees to Europe, agree to election plan

In a summit in France on Tuesday the 30th of May, the rival factions of Libya, a country with an estimate of 43,113 refugees according to the UN from which 90 percent cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe, agreed to hold parliamentary and presidential elections. The summit was hosted by the French president Emmanuel macron, who called the summit ‘historic’. However, others raised critical questions about the breakthrough of the conference.

Country report on Eritrea claims Eritrean refugees are treated better on return

In an episode of Dutch investigative radio programme Argos, the matter of controversial country reports, which are used in asylum decisions, was raised. Anonymous sources, such as those used in reports on Afghanistan and Eritrea, have a large impact on the content of the important reports, determining (possible) return of asylum seekers. In 2017, The Netherlands made a country report on Eritrea, which received criticism for its tone, which was more positive than the 2016 report. Prof. Mirjam van Reisen explains this criticism on the Dutch radio programme Argos on NPO radio 1.