Dyslectic @DAIRInstitute fellow & founder of @Btchubafrica
Tweets about #Refugees #HumanRights #Eritrea #Africa #WithTheOpressed #Bitcoin
Personal account
May 11, 2023 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
In 2013 I was invited by HRF to speak at the Oslo freedom forum. It had been my dream watching many of my heroes and heroines speak at this prestigious platform. After 4 years I received an email from Alex Gladstein on behalf of @HRF. @gladstein was inviting me to speak
at this memorable occasion. I was happy and excited beyond measure. Finally, I was invited to the Oscars of activism.
It has always been my aim not only to create a change in society through activism but also to contribute to the lives of refugees and people from my motherland
May 12, 2021 • 7 tweets • 1 min read
As we approach the 30th anniversary of Eritrean independence, citizens continue to be subject to arbitrary imprisonment without recourse to the courts, shattering the lives of thousands of Eritrean families emdhr.net/post/the-erosi…
family members in the diaspora provide much needed material support to those back home in the form of remittances. Remittances account for approximately 32% of Eritrea’s GDP (AfDB, 2020)
May 11, 2021 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
What people need to understand about the East African hawala system is that billions of dollars is sent every year from all over the world in remittance. So let me give an example how we Eritreans and Ethiopians in the West often send money to our families back in Africa monthly.
The options that we have are Western Union/Ria/Money Gram/Dehab Shil, they all charge transfer fee and require sender and receiver ID. If I’m sending my family $300 she will receive it at a fixed price that the governments put on. But if I send it through hawala,
Apr 7, 2021 • 21 tweets • 4 min read
Thread on how the smugglers/traffickers use zero down payment plan.
For many 0 down payment plan is the best option of safety at least that is what everyone believes, but the problem with zero down payment is in order for the system 2 work, it always requires a connection house.
Example Azeb is woman who lives in Asmara and wants to be smuggled to Khartoum and the smuggler has offered her the zero down payment option meaning Azeb doesn't have to pay for the trip until she reaches Sudan.
Mar 16, 2021 • 27 tweets • 7 min read
Thread on the smuggler Medhanie Yehdego Mered.
The first time I heard the name Medhanie was in 2010 when I was contacted by family members whose loved ones were held hostage in Sinai, I was told by a group of 30 Eritreans (age 16-30) from the same/nearby villages in #Eritrea.
The group of 30 wanted to go to Israel and were looking for smugglers who could smuggle them, and often when choosing a smuggler you try to find a smuggler that you know or someone from your village thinking you are in good hands.
Dec 5, 2020 • 8 tweets • 4 min read
Thread: Wounded Eritrean refugees from Hintsats refugee camp in Tigray are taken back to Eritrea, through three way call I was able to speak to one of the refugees who is hospitalized in Barentu Eritrea. He told me that Ethiopian federal military and Eritrean military controlled
the refugee camps and fighting enraptured between the Tigrayan militia in the area as I was running the Tigrayan militia man shot me with a small pistol that he was holding, he thought I was one of the Eritrean soldier or their collaborator and all I remember after that is
Aug 30, 2020 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
Last weekends 4 shipwrecks in the Med hit me really hard, I knew one of the over 100 refugees who died. I know his mother though a common friend, for the past four years she has been calling me from Eritrea to ask what kind help there was for her youngest son who was in Libya.
She always asked me to call him and check on him and just to comfort him, the first time I called him he was being held hostage by Kidane and Co group who were being protected by General Abu Amuy and was extorted to pay two ransoms. After Abu Amuy fled all refugees who were held
Dec 18, 2018 • 92 tweets • 21 min read
Thread: As a refugee advocate & doing my radio program 'Voices of Eritrean Refugees' since 2008, I have met many refugees whose stories has given me many sleepless nights and had me often question humanity. I will try to share as many stories as I can. #InternationalMigrantsDay
1, Keshi Okbay (Priest Okbay) was a 36 years old man, comes from a very rural area in #Eritrea. After serving in the military service for many years he decided to leave the country and made it to #Sudan, he was then kidnapped at the border by a group of Rashida
