Africa Blog » Eritrea http://blogs.reuters.com/africa African business, politics and lifestyle Wed, 20 Aug 2008 17:21:12 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 en Where is Eritrea headed? http://blogs.reuters.com/africa/2008/05/14/where-is-eritrea-headed/ http://blogs.reuters.com/africa/2008/05/14/where-is-eritrea-headed/#comments Wed, 14 May 2008 14:01:57 +0000 Reuters Staff http://blogs.reuters.com/africa/2008/05/14/where-is-eritrea-headed/ eritrea_president.jpgEritrean President Isaias Afwerki is probably one of Africa’s least-known yet controversial leaders. After a successful 30-year independence war against neighbouring Ethiopia, he won praise from the West in the 1990s for being part of a “new generation” of  progressive African leaders. In recent years, however, the Eritrean president has been increasingly criticised from abroad as running his small Horn of African nation along authoritarian lines.

Not usually keen on giving interviews to Western media, President Isaias Afwerki sat down this week for a nearly two-hour chat with Reuters’ Asmara correspondent Jack Kimball and East Africa bureau chief Andrew Cawthorne. In it, he criticised the United Nations, denied an incursion into Djibouti, outlined Eritrea’s economic policies and accused the United States of trying to destabilise his country.

Has Isaias Afwerki been good or bad for Eritrea and Africa. What do you think?

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