ERITREA COUNTRY PROFILE
“Religious repression continued unabated” according to the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea, Mohamed Abdelsalam Babiker in 2025. He expressed particular concern about “the prolonged arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance of religious leaders and people of faith, some of whom have been detained for over 20 years." 62 The government officially recognizes the Catholic, Evangelical Lutheran, and Tewahedo Eritrean Orthodox Churches in addition to Sunni Islam. It also appoints Muslim and Orthodox leaders, controlling their activities and finances, while the smaller Catholic and Lutheran communities have much more freedom in these matters. Decree 73 prohibits spiritual leaders and religious media from commenting on politics. It also obliges Churches carrying out social initiatives to support state schemes. 63 Since 2019, Catholic social initiatives, including schools and hospitals, have been appropriated by the state, with Church staff who resisted these measures having faced intimidation, detention and enforced disappearance. 64 Registered Churches can also face other issues — such as forced military conscription of clerics. All other groups are supposed to register with the Office of Religious Affairs or stop all activities, but no group has yet managed to successfully complete the complex registration process. 65 Members of these groups, e.g., Pentecostal Christians, are routinely imprisoned and pressured to renounce their beliefs. In mid-2025 it was estimated that perhaps up to 500 Christians from unregistered Evangelical Protestant communities were in detention without charge or trial. 66 However, since the controversial prisoner releases at the end of 2025 (see November-December 2025) there have been no new mass arrests of Christians. Those arrested for religious reasons have been described as living in inhumane conditions at high-security prisons such as Mai Serwa near Asmara, being forced to live in squalor, and facing violence and intimidation. 67 Clerics from state-recognized Churches have also been jailed, including Orthodox priest Gebremedhin Gebregergis, who was seized in November 2004. 68
SELECTED INCIDENTS
2005, and not formally charged. A dozen organizations and more than 70 individuals signed a letter taken to the Eritrean embassy in the USA’s capital Washington, DC calling for the release of the Evangelical and Orthodox ministers. The embassy refused to accept the letter. 71 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2025 177 Christians were freed. But their release was conditional on signing a document stating they had illegally joined a proscribed denomination and promising not to participate in unregistered church activities again — taking full responsibility for any subsequent punishment if they did. 72
JULY 2024 A report found at least 218 Christians had been arrested over the past year, many of whom were women and children, bringing the number of Christians in prison to around 400. 69 JANUARY 2025 Authorities detained 44 Christians including 27 teenagers attending a prayer service held in a private home in Asmara. 70
AUGUST 2025 The #Voices4Justice campaign called for the release of seven Christian leaders arrested in 2004 and
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