Patriarch’s Adviser Arrested

Since the regime of President Isaias Afwerki stripped Eritrean Orthodox Patriarch Abune Antonios of his ecclesiastical authority on August 7, his close associates have also come under fire.

Compass has confirmed that Marigetta Yetbareke, a well-educated theologian and teacher in the Eritrean Orthodox Church, was recently forced to resign his advisory post to the patriarch, under pressure from the government-imposed administrators who have taken over the church.

"He didn’t resist," an Asmara source told Compass, "so he wrote his resignation and left his responsibility."

But in late September, Yetbareke was arrested at his home at 6:30 in the morning, reportedly for "actively criticizing" the new church administration. He remains jailed in Asmara’s Wongel Mermera investigation center, where most of the Protestant pastors and three Medhane Alem priests are also incarcerated