Inside ‘Africa’s North Korea’: Human Rights, Dictatorship, and Eritrea’s Future

Eritrea is often described as “Africa’s North Korea” – a closed dictatorship where indefinite conscription, disappearances and repression push people to flee, feeding one of the world’s most desperate migration routes.In this episode of Global Power Shifts, Jim Stenman and Suzanne Kianpour sit down with Vanessa Tsehaye, a Swedish Eritrean human rights activist, founder of One Day Seyoum, 2025 Magnitsky Award winner, and former Amnesty International campaigner and Al Jazeera journalist. Vanessa’s uncle, a photojournalist, has been imprisoned in Eritrea for more than two decades, and that personal story runs through her work. She explains the country’s human rights crisis, how it connects to migrant journeys across the Sahara and Mediterranean, and how Eritreans are still fighting for accountability – and quietly preparing for life after Isaias Afwerki.