Isaias Afwerki’s biography is inseparable from the modern history of Eritrea. From the years of armed struggle to the consolidation of statehood, his persona has come to embody the Eritrean state itself. On the surface, his rule registers as classic autocratic governance; read more deeply, it reveals a double-edged authoritarianism that strikes perceived threats with relentless force while consuming allies and confidants alike. Over time, this dynamic has left him increasingly isolated, presiding over a system sustained by fear, suspicion, and the gradual erosion of trust, even among those closest to him.

Who is Isaias Afwerki?

Isaias Afwerki was born on February 2, 1946 in the Aba Shawul district of Asmara. His mother descended from Tigray immigrants from the Enderta area, while his father hailed from Tselot, just outside Asmara, and worked for the British-administered tobacco monopoly. He began primary schooling in Aba Shawul and completed secondary education at Prince Makonnen Secondary School. His adolescence coincided with the unravelling of the 1950s federal arrangement and the eventual formal absorption of Eritrea into Ethiopia in 1962, a rupture that shaped the generation of Eritrean nationalists to which he belonged (Gates, Akyeampong, & Niven, 2012).

After enrolling at Haile Selassie University in Addis Ababa to study engineering, Isaias left after only a year (September 1966) and moved to Kassala, Sudan, where he joined the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF). Formed by expatriate students and intellectuals in Cairo, the ELF or Jebha was the first organized body to successfully launch an armed struggle against Ethiopia (Gates, Akyeampong, & Niven, 2012). In 1967, Isaias was sent to China for political and military training as a commissar; the experience profoundly shaped his organizational skills and approach to political control, it was there that he had “learned all the wrong things” (Welde Giorgis, 2014; Wrong, 2023).

Rise within the Liberation Movement

Returning to the theatre of struggle in 1969, Isaias found a movement riven by factional conflict. By 1970, the ELF had splintered into several groups, and he emerged as the leader of a small faction operating on Eritrea’s eastern front (known as the People’s Liberation Front, PLF 2). He sought to articulate a programmatic foundation for the struggle: his 1971 manifesto, Our Struggle and Its Goals, emphasized overcoming ethnic and religious cleavages while advancing a revolutionary agenda (Weldehaimanot & Taylor, 2011).

As Isaias consolidated his position within the EPLF, internal rivalries were resolved with extreme force. His record includes the neutralization of rival factions like Menkae and Yameen through purges that, according to multiple accounts, involved mass killings and harsh reprisals (Connell, 2001; Kidane & Menkerios, 2004).

Over the next decade, his influence grew. He was appointed chairman of the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) military committee in 1975 and, in 1976, authored Destructive Movement, a text that solidified his doctrinal and organizational authority (Pool, 2001). By the EPLF’s first congress in January 1977, he was elected vice secretary-general; by 1987, he had become secretary-general. When EPLF forces entered Asmara in 1991 and the Derg regime collapsed, Isaias transitioned from insurgent leader to head of state, assuming the presidency of a newly independent Eritrea (Connell, 2001; Gates, Akyeampong, & Niven, 2012).

Consolidation of Power and Personal Style

Over more than three decades in power, Isaias has centralized authority and systematically eclipsed the prospect of independent institutions. Observers and critics describe a leadership style marked by intense personalism and a pronounced suspicion of potential rivals. Personal mannerisms, most visibly his long, darker moustache, draw comparison to the iconography of 20th-century authoritarian leaders. More substantively, he has sought to replicate similar modes of centralized control and unchecked leadership.

Isaias has long projected himself as the architect of Eritrea’s independence and the ultimate arbiter of its fate. As Ambassador Andebrhan Welde-Ghiorgis recounts in Eritrea at a Crossroads: A Narrative of Triumph, Betrayal and Hope, Isaias once remarked:

“I know that you call me Agame behind my back. I will show you! I will take this country down as I put it up.” (Welde Giorgis, 2014)

Such statements underline a governing mindset in which the state is treated as an extension of his personal authority. This outlook is reflected in his refusal to allow any institutionalized succession plan, ensuring that Eritrea’s political future remains contingent upon his continued rule.

Colleagues and former associates recount a leader who exercises authority with little tolerance for dissent: family members and close collaborators have been removed from office, senior officials have been reshuffled or side-lined abruptly, and episodes of public and private intimidation have been reported (Abdu Ahmed, 2012). A recurrent element in these accounts is a siege mentality embodied by Isaias. The President holds worldview portraying external and internal foes as persistent threats, rationalizing pre-emptive repression.

Brutality Against Comrades

The pattern of repression extends to veterans and high-ranking officials. In July 1994, three years after formal independence, a group of disabled veterans staged a peaceful protest over neglect and inadequate reintegration; Isaias’s response was harsh and violent (Mesfin, 2024).

The G-15 affair of 2001 remains a particularly consequential example. A group of prominent veterans and ministers who publicly called for accountability and a check to Isaias’s power were arrested en masse. They remain in detention; family members have been denied access, and their whereabouts remain unknown.

Loyalty has not guaranteed immunity. General Sibhat Ephrem, a long-standing military commander credited with key victories such as Operation Fenkil (the seizure of Massawa in March 1991) and a former Minister of Defense, saw his standing eroded by sudden reassignment to the Mines and Energy portfolio. In the aftermath of rapprochement with Ethiopia, General Sibhat reportedly survived an assassination attempt. Initial reports pointed to various possible perpetrators, but allegations later circulated that the attack had been orchestrated internally amid suspicions of collusion with external intelligence services. He was evacuated to a military hospital in the UAE and, according to accounts, now lives under unofficial restrictions (Eritrea Watch, 2019).

The former finance minister Berhane Abraha, a long-serving official removed from office in 2012 after criticizing fiscal management and centralization of power and publishing “Eritrea My Country (ሃገረይ ኤርትራ)” in London in 2018, a candid critique of Isaias’s governance. He was reportedly detained thereafter, and reports in 2024 indicate that he died in custody (Plaut, 2024).

Crackdown on Religious Leaders and Followers

Religious actors and communities have also faced state repression. In 1994, the government suspended the activities of Jehovah’s Witnesses, citing their conscientious refusal to participate in civic duties such as voting and military service; many adherents were arrested and pressured to leave the country. The Global Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Office of Public Information reported in 2019 that dozens remained detained without trial, with several deaths in custody attributed to mistreatment (CSW, 2018).

Islamic leaders perceived as resisting state interference have faced arrest. Haji Musa Mohammed Nur, Honorary President of Al Diaa Islamic School in Asmara, reportedly died in detention in March 2018. Hajji Ibrahim Younus was reported to have died in prison in January 2019 (CSW, 2018, 2019).

The Eritrean Orthodox Church has also faced curbs on autonomy. In January 2006, Patriarch Abune Antonios was placed under house arrest after resisting state intervention and the imposition of a church tax; he remained under effective confinement until his death on 9 February 2022 (The British Orthodox Church, 2022). Monastic communities and individual clergy have faced detention or exile. Five monks from Debre Bizen were detained on 13 June 2019, and reports indicate that monks from various monasteries fled to Ethiopia during this period (ACN, 2021).

Regional Projection and Incentives

Isaias’s domestic consolidation has been accompanied by a foreign policy prioritizing regime security through regional projection. Since the beginning of statehood in 1993, Eritrea has fought with all its neighbours. Isaias went to war over the Hanish Islands with Yemen, contested Badme with Ethiopia, confronted territorial tensions with Djibouti over Dumera, and engaged in episodic friction with Sudan. He has also been accused of supporting armed groups across borders, projecting Eritrea’s reach and influence beyond its frontiers (Healy, 2007).

These policies appear instrumental. For Isaias, sustained external threats justify emergency governance domestically, constraining political liberalization and economic opening. The 2018 rapprochement with Ethiopia briefly altered regional dynamics, but its pace and scope gave rise to competing incentives.

For Isaias, rapid opening risked eroding the siege narrative and the domestic mechanisms of control built on anti-Ethiopian mobilization. For domestic critics and many observers, economic integration with Addis Ababa offered material relief and new opportunities. Where rapprochement promised reduced external threat and economic benefit, Isaias’s approach oscillated, and in subsequent periods he returned to provocative postures that critics view as attempts to maintain leverage and preserve regime security.

Allegations of support for armed groups, opportunistic territorial claims, and targeted propaganda against Ethiopia reinforce the perception that he treats peace as a strategic concession to be tightly controlled.

The Way Forward

Isaias Afwerki has hollowed out the promise of an Eritrean state. Where courts, pseudo-bureaucracies, and political structures might have taken root, his personification of governance has exposed what could have been. The machinery of the state exists to serve him, not the citizen, and the contours of Eritrea itself are defined by his authority, his calculations, and his absence of compromise.

What stands is a nation caught in the fog of his making. With no succession, no independent institutions, and power fused entirely to his will, the future stretches uncertain and constrained. Eritrea moves under the shadow of one man, and what might have been a state proper now exists only as the reflection of his rule.

References

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Wrong, M. (2023, September 28). Eritrea’s Mao-reading president used to seem like a relic. Now he’s on a roll. The Economist.