Eritrea's ruling regime, the PFDJ, has called back all conscripts under the age of 50 back to Wia, a training camp in the Northern Red Sea (Semhar) region.

The reason for the new order is purported to be a refersher course in military readiness.

The call applies to all "national service" members, known locally as "agelgelot", who are not in "active" military duty. This means that the directive is applicable to recruits of the 1st round ("zuria"), trained in 1995, all the way to the 14th round. The most recent recruits are the 19th round: 18,000 youth who graduated from the Kiloma boot camp in December 2006, a group that have been deserting at a rate so alarming the regime issued a shoot-to-kill order on anyone caught moving without permit.

Meanwhile, as has been reported several times by Gedab News, the regime has been repositioning the soldiers throughout the flashpoints of the Eritrea-Ethiopia border. It has dug trenches and moved heavy armaments in the Tsorona-Midfae Walta area. In the Badme front, (and inside the so-called demilitarized zone) it has placed tanks and anti-aircraft missiles.

The regime continues to explain all these military manuevers as part and parcel of the national development programme, which is largely carried out by the conscripted army.

Meanwhile, the armed forces, which had thus far been immune to the food shortages affecting the civilians, are facing shortages in bread and lentils, the basic meal of the armed forces.

The regime continues to deny that it has any problem in this regard. When Mr.Kjell Bondevik, the UN special envoy for humanitarian affairs, visited Eritrea on June 22nd to meet with President Isaias Afwerki, the state media presented news that would give a reader the impression that he endorsed the regime's "cash for food" scheme, without reporting his concerns that the scheme may not be sufficient to address the food needs of the country. Only when the totality of his views were reported in foreign media did the government officials attempt to respond.

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Last Updated ( Jun 25, 2007 )