Several Injured As Eritrean Clashes Hit Netherlands
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS (Worthy News) – Security has been stepped up in The Hague after the Dutch city turned into a war zone with two rival groups of Eritreans fighting each other over the weekend, injuring at least six police officers, officials said.
Police used tear gas in an attempt to quell the massive unrest in The Hague and detained 13 suspects as rioters torched police cars and a bus, authorities explained.
Witnesses saw vehicles in flames and dozens of men in the street, some throwing rocks.
“It got seriously out of hand,” The Hague Municipality spokesman Robin Middel said in a statement.
Middel stressed that a group loyal to Eritrea’s government was holding a meeting when the venue was attacked by Eritreans who oppose the African nation’s authoritarian government.
During the clashes, two officers reportedly suffered injuries to their hands and another to her teeth. A fourth was hit by a police car in the chaos, according to investigators.
Police, in a later statement, said another agent became unwell because of the tear gas, while a sixth officer was wounded in the knee.
SERIOUS VIOLENCE
“Out of nowhere, our colleagues were confronted with very intense and serious violence,” recalled police commander Marielle van Vulpen.
“The violence used against police officers and equipment is appalling and unacceptable,” said the city’s mayor, Jan van Zanen.
Politician Geert Wilders, whose anti-Islam PVV party became the most significant political grouping following recent elections, posted social media images of the riots with a caption in capital letters: “Arrest and Deport.”
He then wrote on social network X, formerly Twitter: “The Netherlands has really had it up to here with this.”
He wondered: “Why is half the world allowed to come here to tear down our country, fight amongst themselves, throw stones at the police, and set their cars on fire?”
Wilders added that he wants “to become the prime minister who finally brings some order to this.”
Some 25,000 Eritreans are living in the Netherlands, according to official government figures.
LATEST VIOLENCE
Yet the clashes are the latest outbreak of violence at Eritrean events in Europe.
Dozens of people, including some 26 police officers, were injured during unrest at an Eritrean cultural festival in the southwestern German city of Stuttgart in September 2023, authorities said.
A fight the same month between Eritrean government supporters and opponents in Tel Aviv, Israel, led to violent street confrontations among African asylum-seekers and migrants.
Months earlier, a clash at an Eritrean festival in the western German city of Giessen left 22 police officers injured.
Tens of thousands of people, including Christians, have fled Eritrea for Europe, many alleging the repressive government of President Isaias Afwerki mistreated them.
Eritrea has long lingered in the top 10 of the annual World Watch List (WWL) of 50 nations where Christian advocacy group Open Doors said Christians face most persecution.
The nation, known as the “North Korea of Africa” due to its “intense authoritarian government,” is ranked 4 on the WWL, Open Doors said.
FEW DENOMINATIONS RECOGNIZED
Eritrea only recognizes three Christian denominations (Eritrean Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Lutheran), “so anyone who follows Jesus outside of these sanctioned churches is at constant risk,” Open Doors warned.
Even in the recognized churches, the government closely monitors every congregation, Christians said. “Speaking out about persecution or government interference in church matters is not tolerated at all,” Open Doors added.
“Raids to round up believers who worship God outside the recognized denominations are common. When Christians are caught in these raids, they can be sent into Eritrea’s notorious prison network, where they can be detained indefinitely,” Open Doors said.
Around 1,000 Eritrean Christians are imprisoned—and they haven’t been charged with any crime, according to Open Doors investigators.
“Members of some house churches have been in prison for more than 10 years, enduring shocking conditions, including solitary confinement in tiny cells,” the group said.
The clashes in the Netherlands showed that the Eritrean tensions are boiling over thousands of miles away.
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