Isaias Afwerki, usually known as Isaias, is Eritrea’s only ever President, having served in the role since 1993. After rising through the ranks of Eritrea’s liberation movement during a thirty-year war for independence against Ethiopia, Isaias has instituted a colossal centralisation of power around himself; Eritrea has no free newspapers, no constitution, no parliament; it doesn’t even have a formal budget. The country also has one of the strictest systems of conscription in the world. 

 Though this state of affairs is very unpleasant to the ordinary Eritreans wo have to live  with it every day, the international community would probably be happy leaving Isaias be if he left the world alone. But this isn’t what Isaias has done. Since 1993, Isaias has involved Eritrea in wars in Sudan, Somalia, the DRC and most significantly Ethiopia, where, since 2020, the Eritrean and Ethiopian governments have been waging war against the Tigrayans. This war is the deadliest war the world has seen this decade so far, and Isaias, who hates the Tigrayans, is largely to blame for it. Never more than Isaias has my guest and I discussed a single person so singularly to blame for so much harm. 

My guest today is Martin Plaut. Martin is a journalist specialising in the Horn of Africa region, he worked as a BBC news journalist for nearly thirty years and currently works for Chatham House. Along with Sarah Vaughan, he is the lead author on an upcoming book, Understanding Ethiopia’s Tigray War, due to be released in February 2023. As well as the War in Tigray, we discuss Eritrea’s colonial history, the country’s long struggle for independence, and the implications of being governed not just by one group of people for thirty years, but by a single individual.