WASHINGTON — The Embassy of the State of Eritrea refused to accept a letter advocating for the release of Christian leaders imprisoned in what is often called “the North Korea of Africa” for more than 20 years without charges, as demonstrators worldwide are calling attention to one of the world’s worst violators of religious freedom.
Advocates gathered outside the Eritrean Embassy on Thursday to protest the detention of seven Christian prisoners of conscience, including Orthodox priests, in the majority Muslim nation.
The protest, spearheaded by the Religious Liberty Partnership’s Voices for Justice campaign along with other advocacy groups, including 21 Wilberforce, Set My People Free, Christian Freedom International and the Jubilee Campaign, took place one day before the International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence on Friday. Christian rights groups in various countries will also be holding demonstrations, processions and prayer meetings on Friday, urging the international community to take action.
The Eritrean leaders are reportedly detained at the Wengel Mermera Criminal Investigation Centre, a maximum-security prison that the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has characterized as “atrocious.”
After the speeches concluded, Ella Elwin of Christian Freedom International attempted to deliver a letter to the embassy signed by religious freedom advocacy organizations and individuals advocating on behalf of the imprisoned Christian leaders. The embassy refused to accept the letter, which cited the treatment of the Christian leaders as contrary to the Eritrean Constitution of 1997, as well as the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Lou Ann Sabatier, director of communications for 21 Wilberforce and one of the speakers at the event, indicated that the advocates would mail the letter to the embassy.
Two Eritrean-born members of a Coptic Christian church traveled from Delaware to join the protest after reading about it on social media.
Araya Debessay, who has lived in the United States for over four decades, revealed in an interview with The Christian Post that he has become “persona non grata” in Eritrea after signing on to a letter published in 2000 criticizing what he described as the “unconstitutional authoritarian leadership” in the country.
Although Debessay never personally experienced religious persecution, he believes that his affiliation with the “G-13” letter has led his remaining relatives in Eritrea to experience “consequences” from the government.
“There is no religious freedom in Eritrea,” he said.
“There are so many who are being persecuted because of their religious beliefs. This is unconstitutional, this is wrong, and this should not happen.”
Haile Tesfay, who has lived in the U.S. for nearly two decades, says that, like Debessay, he is “not able to go” to Eritrea because he knows the “consequences.”
“There is no such freedom of religion or belief in Eritrea. All is controlled by the government, and there is infiltration of the government in all religious institutions,” he said. “There is infiltration in all religions in Eritrea, whether it is Orthodox, whether it’s Catholicism, whether it’s Evangelical.”
In addition to holding signs with pictures of all seven Christian leaders along with the words “Release the 7” as well as posters with individual pictures of the religious prisoners, advocates told the stories of the detained while speaking in front of the Embassy.
Wendy Wright of Christian Freedom International said the Rev. Million Gebreselassie, who led the Rhema Evangelical Church in Massawa and worked as an anestheticist, was arrested at a security checkpoint in June 2004. He has been held without charges for more than 21 years.
Wright said that Dr. Kuflu Gebremeskel, chairman of the Eritrean Evangelical Alliance, was arrested following a raid on his home in 2004. As they detained the religious leader, authorities confiscated the keys to his church office and threatened his wife.
She noted that the religious persecution watchdog Open Doors discovered in 2021 that Gebremeskel was “suffering from stress-related hypertension and diabetes as a result of his imprisonment.”
The Rev. Gebremedhin Gebregiorgis, an Orthodox Christian priest, was arrested in November 2004 because he “taught the word of God in a local language, challenging the traditional use of the ancient language in the Eritrean Orthodox Church, which could only be understood by the clergy.”
Another Orthodox Christian priest, the Rev. Tekleab Menghisteab, was also arrested in 2004 and now suffers from hypertension.
The Rev. Kidane Weldou, who led the Full Gospel Church, has been imprisoned since 2005. Open Doors has reported that Weldou suffers from eye damage attributed to diabetes exacerbated by his long-term detention. Dr. Futsum Gebrenegus, another Orthodox priest, was arrested in 2004 for his involvement with a renewal movement within the Eritrean Orthodox Church.
The Rev. Haile Naizge, an Evangelical leader and former accountant with the Evangelical humanitarian charity World Vision, was also detained in 2004 and has not seen his family in over 20 years.
Faith McDonnell of the advocacy group Katatismos Global, a longtime religious freedom activist based in the Washington area, said she previously protested outside the Eritrean Embassy on behalf of the imprisoned Christian leaders in 2005.
Participants in the protest, she said, saw their relatives in Eritrea experience adverse treatment from the government, such as being detained in “shipping containers” because “there’s not enough prison space.” Such treatment is consistent with the testimony of survivors like gospel singer Helen Berhane, who told President Donald Trump in 2019 that she spent 32 months inside a shipping container.
McDonnell said Berhane “refused demands to sign a paper recanting her faith in Christ and agreeing to stop singing and participating in Christian activities.”
Some prisoners face “unspeakable sexual torture,” McDonnell added, while others are subject to another form of torture referred to as “the Jesus Christ,” where “the victim is stripped to the waist and stood on a block with hands tied to a tree branch.”
“The block is removed, leaving the victim suspended with feet just off the ground in a crucifix-like posture,” she added.
Eritrea ranked sixth on watchdog Open Doors’ World Watchlist of worst countries for Christian persecution for 2025. The U.S. State Department designates Eritrea as a Country of Particular Concern for “systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom.”
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
