PBS Frontline documentary on the brutal dictatorial regime of President Isaias Afwerki in Eritrea.

He has been in power since 1991, since the independence of the country from Ethiopia and has apparently led a harsh one party rule in the country. There are apparently no independent media, no judiciary, no civil society and no constitution also. No elections have been held ever since independence.

People are jailed on some pretext or other and kept in confinement for years together without any charge being brought against them. People are kept inside hot rooms in deplorable conditions. There are many prisons dotted around the country where political prisoners and religious prisoners are kept.

Prisoners are routinely beaten and interrogated for hours together and women are raped and traumatized by the regime soldiers. There is no human rights, no rights at all for anybody. Its called the North Korea of Africa.

Few people tried to escape and they smuggled in video footages which forms the most part of this documentary. The UN is into it threatening to take the President to the International Court for the crimes against humanity.

There was some hope for peace when Ethiopia brokered a peace agreement a couple of years ago, but ostensibly things have not changed much during the recent years after the peace accord. Its a nice documentary with video footages, secret interviews, voice over commentary etc. Worth watching.