...is run by the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), with about the amounts of democracy and justice you'd expect from a party with that name. National elections have been periodically scheduled and cancelled; none have ever been held in the country. The president, Isaias Afewerki, has been in office since independence in 1993 and will probably die there of old age. ...
's UN envoy said Asmara has petitioned the Security Council to lift sanctions on his country after a monitoring group said it found no evidence that Eritrea supports the Somali-based Islamist jihad boy group al-Shabaab
... the personification of Somali state failure...
Ambassador Araya Desta said Eritrea has yet to officially receive a copy of the UN monitoring group's report before it was allegedly leaked to some media organizations.
"It's a pity we have not yet received officially the copy of the report. But, we have seen it in Rooters [news website] today that they have got a copy and they are talking about it," said Desta.
"We have been asking the sanctions committee to give us a copy of the report, [but] they said we cannot give [it to] you. So, we don't know what this report is saying."
Rooters reports that "Eritrea has reduced its support for the al Qaeda-linked jihad boy group in Somalia under international pressure, but still violates Security Council resolutions and remains a destabilizing influence."
But, Desta deniedAsmarahas supported al-Shabaab.
"Definitely, I can assure you that the report was leaked to Rooters inAddis Ababa,Æthiopia before Eritrea had a chance to see it. And, as indicated in their July 6 blurb, the [monitoring] group said it has found no evidence to substantiate allegations that Eritrea supplied al-Shabaab with arms and ammunitions by air in October and November 2011," said Desta.
"We have been saying all this that Eritrea has never given arms to al-Shabaab and, even this time, they have come to say that they haven't received any evidence regarding this."