Eritrean diplomat asks for political asylum in Sudan

KHARTOUM, Oct 12 (AFP) — An Eritrean diplomat has asked for
political asylum in Sudan, protesting what he described as
worsening conditions back home, the semi-governmental Sudanese Media
Center said Tuesday.

It said Ande Burhan Stev submitted his asylum request to the
Sudanese authorities through the office of the UN refugee agency,
the UNHCR, and the tripartite committee on repatriation of Eritrean
refugees from Sudan, on which he serves as his country’s
representative.

“The conditions inside Eritrea have deteriorated and sunk to a
degree that keeping silent about it is a crime,” Ande was quoted by
SMC as saying.

He was further quoted as saying that the Eritrean authorities
jailed most of the returnees on grounds they were supporters of the
Eritrean opposition-in-exile.

The SMC said Ande first served in the office of President
Issaias Afeworki, then as assistant consul in the Eritrean embassy
in Khartoum before his appointment to the refugees committee.

Tens of thousands of Eritreans fled their country in the middle
of the 1960s after the late Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie annexed
the country in 1962.

Many are now living in Sudan and are being voluntarily
repatriated under the supervision of the UNHCR.

The US State Department earlier this year condemned the Eritrean
government’s human record.