We continue to ignore the stark lesson that externally imposed development models have not gotten us very far. It's what Africans do themselves that will determine how far and how fast we move forward. The only way forward is for Africa to drive its own bus and for the driver and passengers to be in full agreement about where they're going. That said, we do need help filling up the tank. The fundamental problem in Africa is not lack of resources, but the failure of political leadership.

Internal displacement in Eritrea stems from a combination of war and drought. At the height of the 1998-2000 border war there were 1.1 million internally displaced people (IDPs) in Eritrea. This number has fallen sharply but there are still over 45,000 IDPs who cannot return home, mainly because of the tensions that persist due to the deadlock over the border.

As Eritrea celebrates its 12th year of independence on 24 May, large numbers of prisoners of conscience and other political prisoners - possibly amounting to several thousands - languish in indefinite incommunicado detention – held without charge or trial and without access to friends, family or lawyers, says Amnesty International. "Amongst those prisoners of conscience are six women detained solely on account of their peaceful opinions. None of the women has been allowed to see her children since her arrest. Their whereabouts are unknown," says Amnesty.

The IUF is requesting international support for a campaign to free three imprisoned trade union leaders in Eritrea. Tewelde Ghebremedhin, Chairperson of the IUF-affiliated Food, Beverages, Hotels, Tourism, Agriculture and Tobacco Workers Federation and Minase Andezion, secretary of the textile and leather workers' federation, were arrested by security police on March 30 and remain in detention. On April 9, police arrested Habtom Weldemicael, who heads the Coca-Cola Workers Union and is a member of the food and beverage workers' federation executive.

The U.N. Mission monitoring the disputed border between Ethiopia and Eritrea disclosed Thursday that it has set up a committee to investigate allegations of sexual abuse which Eritrean women have made against Mission peacekeepers and civilian staff. Gail Sainte, spokesperson for the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), said, "UNMEE has established a committee today composed of civilian and military personnel to look into sexual abuse accusations made by Eritrean women, one of which was informally and the other two were formally reported to us.''

Sitting outside her kiosk in the western Eritrean village of Dressa, Frawine Abraham, who was born a refugee in Sudan, is glad to be back in her homeland but she struggles here to make ends meet. "I was born in a refugee camp in Sudan. I wanted to come and live in my country. Here, I can move about more easily, but I don't have enough money," said the 24-year-old. Frawine was repatriated in 2001, one of an estimated 120,000 refugees who have returned since then from neighbouring Sudan, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) here.

Four countries with long records of press repression - China, Cuba, Eritrea, and Burma - account for more than three-quarters of the journalists imprisoned around the world, a new analysis by the Committee to Protect Journalists has found. "These four countries operate outside the international mainstream," CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper said. "The widespread jailing of journalists is pursued only by those few nations that distrust their own citizens and care little about the opinion of the rest of the world."

The World Association of Newspapers has written to the Eritrean authorities to express concern at the continuing imprisonment of journalist Dawit Isaac and the government's ongoing suppression of press freedom. "According to reports, Mr Isaac, a journalist, author and playwright, has been held in jail since his arrest in September 2001 for publishing a call for democratic reforms in Setit, the newspaper he founded on his return to Eritrea in 1996 after living in exile in Sweden for nine years," said the organisation.

Eritrea’s education system is to undergo a US $27 million transformation to improve access to schools and boost quality. The government is planning to construct 349 new classrooms in 60 schools and equip science labs with funds received from the African Development Fund (ADF). Computer equipment and reference libraries are also to be established in schools around the country, said the ADF on Wednesday.

The International Federation of Journalists has condemned the Eritrean government's "dictatorial" approach to press freedom, warning that free and independent journalism "faces extinction" in the country. "The international community must intervene to stop the rot," said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary. "Independent journalism faces extinction in Eritrea and the outside world must act now." The concern of the IFJ and other press freedom groups over the Eritrean crisis intensified at the end of last month when the last remaining foreign correspondent was expelled from the country. Jonah Fisher, who worked in Eritrea for 18 months as correspondent for the BBC and Reuters, said the authorities gave him no explanation, but his expulsion followed a period of "increasing difficulties."

Poor performance of spring and summer rains could result in a total failure of long-cycle crops and a much below average harvest of short-cycle crops. Although some improvement in harvest prospects was expected if September rains improved, a dry spell dominated the last three weeks of the month, removing the prospect for improvement. According to a Ministry of Health (MoA) nutrition survey, the prevalence of acute malnutrition in the lowland areas of the surveyed zones was found to be very high and had increased significantly since the December 2003 surveys.

Eritrea may hold a major piece of the puzzle to the solution to the environmental crisis's and food security problems the world is facing. On the southwestern coast of the Red Sea, it is the home of two cutting edge environmental developments based on the use of sea water to produce food, animal fodder and the ability to green the desert. Using sustainable aqua culture techniques along with the often despised mangrove tree, a company called Seawater Farms has developed the first commercial scale, self sufficient, non polluting production of food for humans and animals using sea water in Eritrea.

Eritrea has been in an extended news blackout since September 2001 when the government closed the privately-owned newspapers and imprisoned the leading journalists. On the eve of the third anniversary since the round-up of journalists and the elimination of the independent press in Eritrea, Reporters Without Borders renewed its call to the authorities to free the detained journalists and let the privately-owned media resume working so that Africa's youngest nation may cease to also be the continent's biggest prison for the press.

Jonah Fisher of the BBC Radio and Reuters, based in Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, left the country on Thursday after his accreditation was suddenly withdrawn. Soon after a conversation regarding Fisher’s "racist negative reporting", with the Information Minister Ali Abdu Ahmed, Fisher was informed that he needed a ministry of information permit to continue working outside Asmara.

Eritrea is the only country in Africa to start winning the war against what Eritrean President Issias Aferwerki has listed as one of the major threats to Eritrean survival, HIV/AIDS, by reducing HIV/AIDS infection rates from 3% to 2.5%, as reported by Dr. Mary Polan of Stanford University School of Medicine at the Eritrean Festival in Oakland, CA on Friday, Aug. 13, 2004.

Having visited Eritrea a number of times to help operate on Eritrean women suffering from fistula, Dr. Polan spoke first hand on how the Eritrean leadership has taken the threat of HIV/AIDS seriously. She spoke of how condoms are now placed in dresser drawers in all hotel rooms in Eritrea and the government has placed billboards prominently throughout the countryside promoting condom use and that advertisements for condom use are regular played on Eritrean television.

HIV/AIDS is ravaging much of Africa, with Ethiopia suffering from what is widely considered to be a conservative estimate of a 15% and growing infection rate and with Botswana reportedly suffering up to a 50% infection rate among government officials. Eritrea is the only country in Africa to be able to stem the tide of HIV/AIDS infection, starting to win what will certainly be a long and difficult fight against one of the most serious crises Africans face.

Despite a socially conservative tradition Eritrea has broken social taboos concerning discussing sexual activities and made HIV/AIDS prevention a priority topic and has been able to cut the infection rate by over 15% in the last 5 years. Once again, a role model has been established in Africa that should be promoted amongst all people, especially Africans at home and abroad, with this being done by one of the worlds smallest, most resource poor country's, plagued by disasters both natural and manmade. Why is it that Eritrea continues to be ignored by so many despite her accomplishments?

Festival Eritrea is being held in Toronto between the 4th and 6th September. Eritreans from Toronto will be joined by many from throughout the country. There will be a number of events including guest speakers, fashion shows and a talent contest.

Concern Worldwide

The position holder will be responsible for the management and provision of technical support to Concern's nutrition programme in Eritrea and for the preparation of donor proposals and reports. The successful applicant will have at least three years field experience in managing emergency and on-going nutrition programmes. To apply, send your CV to:

Sudan has agreed to consider the asylum claims of 76 Eritreans who forced a Libyan plane to land in Sudan because they feared returning home, a U.N. official said on Saturday. Libya had denied the Eritreans refugee status. The Libyan military transport plane took off from the town of Khufrah and was heading for the Eritrean capital Asmara when some of the angry deportees moved into the cockpit and forced the plane to land.

The opposition to Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki has been meeting, leading to the most significant shake-up in Eritrean politics for many years. Opposition groups, which have been notoriously disunited, have come up with a common set of objectives, which could - for the first time in years - begin to pose a greater challenge to the president's hold on power. Since achieving independence from Ethiopia in 1993, Eritrea has been a one party state.

Eritrea, one of the few African countries that have been able to significantly reduce the number of reported malaria cases, is to further boost its campaign against the killer disease using a donation of 30,000 long-lasting mosquito nets. According to officials, the number of reported malaria cases in Eritrea fell from 200,000 in 1999 to 45,000 in 2003. "The success of Eritrea can be explained by various strategies. One of those is using impregnated bed nets," Berhane Ghebretinsae, the Eritrean director general of Health Services, told IRIN in the capital, Asmara.