Massive riots at Eritrea event in Stuttgart

Again it is in the context of one Eritrea event Riots broke out in Germany – this time in Stuttgart. There were previously violent clashes at an Eritrea festival in Giessen in July 2023. “We were aware that there would be disruptions at such an event, but the massiveness of the riots could not have been predicted,” said the police spokesman.

The police spokesman said on Saturday that several small groups attacked the approximately 200 participants in the event and police officers with stones, bottles and wooden slats with. Ten officers were injured. Videos on social media show men attacking police officers with wooden bars and bottles.

Around 200 people came to an event on Saturday Association of Eritrean Clubs gathered in Stuttgart and the surrounding area, a police spokesman reported. The clubs would sympathize with the government in Eritrea. At lunchtime several small groups would meet Bad Cannstatt train station and on Stuttgart main station gathered. They attacked the participants of the event at the Stuttgart Roman fort.

Police used batons to stop riots at an Eritrean event

The police used batons and pepper spray against the attackers, said the spokesman. Forces were ordered from surrounding police headquarters and from the police headquarters and the federal police. Forces would also have been flown in by helicopter. The situation was confusing in the afternoon.

Eritrea with a good three million inhabitants is located in Northeast Africa on the Red Sea and is largely isolated internationally. Since independence was won in a decades-long war Ethiopia ruled 30 years ago President Isaias Afewerki the country in a one-party dictatorship.

Other parties are banned and freedom of expression and freedom of the press are severely restricted. There is neither a parliament nor independent courts or civil society organizations. There is also a strict military service and forced labor system, from which many people flee abroad.