The United States continues economic sabotage of Eritrea

By Thomas C. Mountain

On February 28, 2019 the last financial wire transactions between the small socialist country of Eritrea and all the western countries were stopped with no further wire transfers in US dollars or Euros to or from Eritrea being allowed.

Unjust and illegal UN sanctions against Eritrea were lifted recently but the damage being done continues. During the 9 year-long UN sanctions period the United States shut down all Eritrean government bank accounts and cut off all access to US dollar international transfers. The United States and its European lackeys even tried to prevent Eritreans in the diaspora from paying their national 2 percent income tax – something all US citizens outside the country must do – critical to the creation and survival of the country.

After being kicked out of the dollar market Eritrea’s next turn was to the EU to no avail. The EU would not allow Eritrea access to international euro transfers so Eritrea was forced to fall back on her only international friend, Russia, as a conduit for international banking transactions in euros.

US sanctions against Russia enforced against the EU are now officially the cause for shutting down Eritrea’s last western foreign exchange access completely cutting off Africa’s only socialist country from western capital transfers.

While diplomatic ties between Eritrea and the United States have improved dramatically under Trump, the economic sabotage of Eritrea’s economy continues. As with all sanctions by the United States, the target is always the people of the sanctioned country, bringing untold misery in the name of “Defending Freedom and Democracy”.

Sanctions have almost never achieved the political aims of the United States with Iraq a prime example during Saddam Hussein’ rule. Half a million dead Iraqis “was worth it” as Hillary Clinton’s mentor Lady Albright so infamously proclaimed.

In the case of us living here in Eritrea and our family and friends in the diaspora, its cash and carry, the only way to get part of the country’s hard currency lifeline in and out of our homeland.

When this economic sabotage will end is a question that must be asked in light of the recognition Eritrea has received in being a critical player in the peace that has broken out in the Horn of Africa, never mind the peaceful revolution that took place in Ethiopia in 2018.

It goes without saying that small socialist countries have never been treated fairly, with Cuba and North Korea paying a brutal price in human suffering. Eritrea is the latest victim of “Pax Americana” and its failing grip on the world’s economic lifelines via the US dollar. The shameful thing is how spineless the Europeans are, bowing down to the US Empire in the most craven manner. How this story will end remains unknown, but for Eritreans at home and abroad, it is just another challenge to overcome.

Thomas C. Mountain attended Punahou School for 6 years some half a dozen years before “Barry O’Bombers” time there. He has been living and writing from Eritrea since 2006. This article is republished from the Counter Punch under a Creative Commons license.