Assenna. The radio station Erena in Paris can also be listened to on the Internet in Eritrea.320
2.4.6 Mobile and landline telephony
According to the ITU, only seven percent of citizens in Eritrea had a mobile phone in 2015. According to Eritel, the figure for 2016 is ten percent.321Eritrea Telecom (Eritel) built 110 mobile phone masts in 2014, offering coverage of 85% of the country. Some 500,000 Eritreans were connected to the Eritel network.322 Conscripts are not allowed to have a mobile phone. The government-controlled EriTel has a monopoly on connections. It is neither simple nor cheap to obtain a mobile phone.323
situation did not change during the past year.330There was also no change to the restriction of religious freedom in the military and civil service during the reporting period. Soldiers and conscripts in the army are forbidden to practise their faith.331 On the Open Doors World Watch List 2017, Eritrea fell from third to tenth place in the ranking of the 50 states where Christians are most persecuted.332The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) again described Eritrea in April 2016 as a ‘Country of Particular Concern’, as has been customary since
2004.333
Just four religious denominations are allowed: the Eritrean Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church, the Lutheran Evangelical Church and Sunni Islam. Members of these recognised religious groups were able to profess their faith openly, as previously. However, individual members could experience problems if they opposed government involvement in their church,334with the government continuing to monitor the recognised religious groups and interfere with appointments. The Orthodox Patriarch Abune Antonios, who protested against this government interference in 2007, is still under house arrest.335
The Patriarch is said to be in a bad state of health, and to lack medical care.336In April 2016, ten Orthodox priests were detained for protesting against his continued detention.337
The government allowed a limited number of Muslims, especially the elderly and those who were not fit for national service, to participate in the Hajj and to travel abroad for religious studies. The government did not allow Islamic groups to be subsidised by governments of predominantly Muslim countries, in order to keep out foreign ‘fundamentalist’ or ‘extremist’ tendencies.338
2.6.1 Non-recognised religious groups
The practice of religion by members of unauthorised religious groups is a criminal activity. Members of non-recognised religious groups such as the Baptists,
Muslims 36%). Most Christians are Eritrean Orthodox, Catholic or Protestant. The other Christian groups (totalling around 5 percent) consist of members of the Greek Orthodox Church, the Pentecostal Church and Jehovah’s Witnesses. About 2 percent of the population is animistic; there is a small Baha’i community of 300 members. The Jewish community numbers fewer than five people. Most of the Eritreans leaving the country are Christian. However, as only 5 percent of the population are members of non-recognised Christian religions – who therefore have a difficult time – and the other Christians (45-52%) do not encounter problems because of their faith, it seems – although it is not known here whether any research has been done into this – that there is no direct link between religion and migration for most Christians. USCIRF, Annual Report 2016– Countries of Particular Concern: Eritrea, 15 April 2016. US Department of State, 2015 Report on International Religious Freedom – Eritrea, 10 August 2016.
330 US Department of State, 2015 Report on International Religious Freedom – Eritrea, 10 August 2016. USCIRF, Annual Report 2016– Countries of Particular Concern: Eritrea, 15 April 2016.
331 USCIRF, Annual Report 2016– Countries of Particular Concern: Eritrea, 15 April 2016.
332 Open Doors: World Watch List 2016.
333 USCIRF, Annual Report 2016– Countries of Particular Concern: Eritrea, 15 April 2016.
334 Two priests from Orthodox monasteries were arrested in the second half of 2015. Other priests fled to Ethiopia.
US Department of State, 2015 Report on International Religious Freedom – Eritrea, 10 August 2016. USCIRF, Annual Report 2016– Countries of Particular Concern: Eritrea, 15 April 2016. See also the General Official Report COI reporton Eritrea of July 2015.
335 The only political party, the PFDJ, appointed the Mufti (head) of the Sunni Muslim community, the Patriarch of the Eritrean Orthodox Church and several less senior religious leaders from both communities. US Department of State, 2015 Report on International Religious Freedom – Eritrea, 10 August 2016.
336 US Department of State, 2015 Report on International Religious Freedom – Eritrea, 10 August 2016. USCIRF, Annual Report 2016– Countries of Particular Concern: Eritrea, 15 April 2016. UNGA, A/HRC/32/47, 6 June 2016.
UNGA, A/HRC/32/CPR.1, 8 June 2016.
337 UNGA, A/HRC/32/47, 6 June 2016. UNGA, A/HRC/32/CPR.1, 8 June 2016.
338 US Department of State, 2015 Report on International Religious Freedom – Eritrea, 10 August 2016.
Evangelical groups, the Seventh Day Adventists, Presbyterians and especially Pentecostal congregations and Jehovah’s Witnesses have continued to experience serious restrictions in the practice of their faith in recent years.339Gathering places have been or remained closed and the government has broken up religious services in people’s homes. Believers have been arrested without charge and detained in harsh conditions.340Members of non-recognised religious groups have also continued to experience difficulty in obtaining passports and exit visas.
Conscientious objections to fulfilling national service obligations, in particular by members of Pentecostal congregations and Jehovah’s Witnesses, have not been accepted.341The Baha’i have also continued to experience hardship.342
Public opinion is neutral regarding people’s religious affiliation. In general, no one cares about such matters. No information is available about the consequences of apostasy by Muslims in the reporting period.343
2.6.2 Jehova’s Witnesses
Jehovah’s Witnesses still face serious discrimination.344In 1994, President Afwerki issued a decree abolishing Jehovah’s Witnesses’ right to identity cards and
government services. As a result, they are unable to register births, marriages and deaths, acquire ownership of land or houses or obtain passports or travel visas.
They are excluded from public-sector jobs. The refusal of Jehovah’s Witnesses to participate in the referendum of 1993 or to perform military service are reasons for their exclusion from civilian rights.345
US government sources estimated the number of Jehovah’s Witnesses in prison because of refusal of military service or the confession of a non-recognised religion at 54 in 2015.346In contrast with previous years, there were no reports of large numbers of Jehovah’s Witnesses being collectively arrested during a religious service.347
2.6.3 Religious prisoners
Because the government does not provide any information about detainees, it is impossible to determine the exact number of believers in prison. Believers are often
339 After a decree (Proclamation No. 73/1995) was issued in 2002 introducing mandatory registration of all religious groups wishing to gain permission to practise their faith, a number of smaller religious groups tried to register.
So far none of them have received permission. USCIRF, Annual Report 2016– Countries of Particular Concern:
Eritrea, 15 April 2016. UNGA, A/HRC/32/47, 6 June 2016. UNGA, A/HRC/32/CPR.1, 8 June 2016.
340 USCIRF, Annual Report 2016– Countries of Particular Concern: Eritrea, 15 April 2016. US Department of State, 2015 Report on International Religious Freedom – Eritrea, 10 August 2016.
341 Ibid.
342 US Department of State, 2015 Report on International Religious Freedom – Eritrea, 10 August 2016. USCIRF, Annual Report 2016– Countries of Particular Concern: Eritrea, 15 April 2016.
343 Confidential sources.
344 US Department of State, 2015 Report on International Religious Freedom – Eritrea, 10 August 2016. USCIRF, Annual Report 2016– Countries of Particular Concern: Eritrea, 15 April 2016.
345 Regarding Jehovah Witnesses, the government has stated that ‘The Jehovah's Witnesses forfeited their legal status when they refused to recognize the “temporal government” after liberation and the referendum process’.
USCIRF, Annual Report 2016– Countries of Particular Concern: Eritrea, 15 April 2016. UNGA, A/HRC/32/47, 6 June 2016. UNGA, A/HRC/32/CPR.1, 8 June 2016. US Department of State, 2015 Report on International Religious Freedom – Eritrea, 10 August 2016.
346 Jehovah’s Witnesses who refused military service are imprisoned without trial. Some, such as Paulos Eyassu, Issac Mogos and Negede Teklemariam, have been in prison since 1994. USCIRF, Annual Report 2016– Countries of Particular Concern: Eritrea, 15 April 2016. US Department of State, 2015 Report on International Religious Freedom – Eritrea, 10 August 2016.
347 Religious services are usually held in homes or abandoned buildings. Individual Jehovah’s Witnesses who tried to convert others were arrested. Some were released fairly soon after their arrest, in some cases after signing a declaration that they had abandoned their faith. US Department of State, 2015 Report on International Religious Freedom – Eritrea, 10 August 2016. USCIRF, Annual Report 2016– Countries of Particular Concern: Eritrea, 15 April 2016.
arrested and released without this being known.348Several sources put the number of people who were imprisoned for religious reasons in this reporting period at 1,200 to 3,000.349The majority belonged to an evangelical or pentecostal community.
According to human rights organisations, hundreds of Orthodox Christians and Muslims are also being held, in part because they have put their faith above loyalty to the PFDJ.350Arrests usually took place during services in people’s homes or on other occasions. Conscripts were caught and arrested while praying or reading the Bible or Koran.351
The conditions in which religious detainees were held were no less harsh. As in previous periods they were usually detained without charge and without access to family or lawyers. They were subjected to mistreatment and torture and kept in overcrowded spaces and poor living conditions. Some, on the other hand, were kept in solitary confinement. Released religious prisoners told of having been detained in underground cells or metal shipping containers in extreme temperatures. As a condition for their release, they were forced to renounce their faith.352