Eritrean prez blames foreigners:

Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki has claimed the exodus of youth to Europe is a deliberate policy fomented by foreign powers to weaken the country, in a speech released Wednesday.

The hardline regime is accused of jailing thousands of political prisoners while refugees from the repressive Red Sea state have in recent years made up one of the largest contingents of people risking the dangerous journey to seek a new life in Europe.

But the 70-year-old ex-rebel Marxist leader said in a speech Tuesday to mark 25 years of independence that the 5,000 Eritreans who risk their lives to flee the country every month according to the UN were leaving because they were encouraged to do so.

“The greatest historical threat to Eritrea’s arch-enemies being the Eritrean people, ‘human trafficking’ was employed to disperse and weaken Eritrea’s human capital,” Isaias said, in the speech released by the Ministry of Information.

“This policy was given paramount priority under the rubric of ‘granting asylum status’ to Eritreans. The campaign was formalised with the official blessing of the US president.”

Eritrea split from Ethiopia in 1991 after a three-decade independence war, which saw Eritrean rebels battling far better-equipped Ethiopian troops which were backed first by Washington and then by the Soviet Union. (AFP)