By Eritreans living in Canada, the United States, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Norway and Angola have made new cash donations to Eritrea’s National Martyrs Trust Fund, the country’s Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare said.
The ministry said the contributions were intended to support the families of “martyrs,” the term used by Eritrean authorities for those killed during the country’s 30-year war of independence from Ethiopia, which ended in 1991, and in subsequent conflicts.
According to the ministry’s statement, Eritrean nationals in Edmonton, Canada, contributed 127,606 nakfa, Eritrea’s national currency. Nationals in Logan, Utah, in the United States, gave $3,440.
The statement said nationals in Copenhagen contributed 75,579 nakfa, while those in Örebro, Sweden, gave 36,486 nakfa.
The latest contributions add to a series of donations from Eritrean nationals inside and outside the country aimed at strengthening the National Martyrs Trust Fund.
Additional donations came from community and cooperative associations. The ministry said members of the “Hilinawi Mekete” association in Germany contributed 5,040 euros, while members of a cooperative association representing former “Corps 491,” a reference to a unit within Eritrea’s independence-era armed forces, gave $3,300 from various European cities.
Members of a cooperative association in southern Sweden donated 2,100 euros, according to the statement. The Eritrean community in Gjøvik, Norway, gave 32,211 nakfa, and nationals in Ostvik, Sweden, contributed 26,300 Swedish kronor. A single Eritrean national residing in Angola gave 7,800 nakfa, the ministry said.
The National Martyrs Trust Fund is a state-administered fund that Eritrea’s government says is used to provide financial support to the families of people killed fighting for Eritrean independence and in later conflicts, including the 1998-2000 border war with Ethiopia.
Such appeals for diaspora donations are published periodically by Eritrea’s Ministry of Information, typically listing contributions from Eritrean community associations in North America, Europe and elsewhere.
Eritrea has one of the largest diasporas relative to its population of any African country, with hundreds of thousands of Eritreans living abroad after decades of war, conscription and, more recently, economic hardship and an indefinite national service program that rights groups have criticized.
The government in Asmara has long relied on financial contributions from citizens abroad, including a widely reported 2% income tax levied on Eritreans living overseas, which the government says funds development projects and support for war-affected families.
That tax has drawn scrutiny from some Western governments; the Netherlands and Canada have in the past taken action against local collection efforts, which some diaspora members say is enforced partly through the withholding of consular services such as passport renewals and property documentation.
Eritrean officials describe the martyrs’ fund contributions and similar donations as voluntary expressions of national solidarity by the diaspora.
Eritrea, a one-party state on the Horn of Africa led by President Isaias Afwerki since independence in 1993, does not permit independent media or opposition political parties, and government statements on funding and social welfare programs are not independently audited by outside bodies.
The Ministry of Information regularly publishes similar dispatches detailing donations from Eritrean communities across Europe, North America, the Middle East and Africa, portraying the diaspora as actively engaged in supporting national causes, including infrastructure projects, drought relief and, in this case, the martyrs’ fund.
