Running From Eritrea

by: Lisa Namikas and Hadish Mehari

At sixteen, Hadish was forced into Eritrea's brutal National Service, a state-sanctioned slavery designed to break spirits. After a minor infraction landed him in prison, a disastrous betrayal in marriage led to his recapture and an impossible choice: serve a long sentence at a remote military outpost or risk everything for freedom.

He chose the desert.

For ten days, Hadish battled one of the world's hottest landscapes, surviving on nothing but a few ants and gritty determination until he was found near death by an Afar trader. The man took him on the perilous journey in disguise to Djibouti and the promise of freedom.

But why do Eritreans in their thousands risk their lives crossing deserts, braving crocodile infested rivers, and running from bullets to escape a country that is not ravaged by war? Over shared coffee and intimate conversation, Hadish reveals the suffocating reality of Isaias Afeworki's rule—and how the regime that once liberated Eritrea has now turned it into imprisonment for generations.

This is a survival story and more. It's the portrait of a beautiful culture caught between tradition and the forces of modernity. It is one boy’s dream of education and his unyielding fight for a future he can call his own.  

Sometimes, one person willing to share their story shows us the choice we all face: to accept the world as it is, or risk everything for the world as it should be.