Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
A week following after the head of Ethiopian Catholic Church and other delegates who were invited by the President of Eritrea Catholic Bishops Conference (ECBC) Archbishop Menghistab Tesfamariamto were denied entry into Eritrea, the Catholic Church of Eritrea has protested the act through a letter addressed to the National Office for Religious Affairs expressing their disappointment.
“We hereby wish to express our deep regret for this most unfortunate incident, whose reasons we have, so far, not understood,” reads an excerpt of the letter signed by the Secretary General of ECBC Abba Tesfaghiorghis Kiflom on behalf of the bishops.
“We still remain in the dark as to the reasons of what sadly occurred on 22 February at the international airport of Asmara,” the letter continues “At the same time, while we reiterate that the eminent ecclesiastical personalities involved therein were our most distinguished guests, we would like to state our considerate reservations on the whole regretful subject.
The head of Ethiopian Catholic Church His Eminence Berhaneyesus Demerew Cardinal Suraphiel, together with other delegates who included His Excellence Abune Mussiè Ghebreghiorghis Uqbu of Ethiopia’s Emdeber (Guraghe) Eparchy and the General Secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Ethiopia (CBCE) Very Rev. Abba Teshome Fikre Weldetensaè, were on February 22 denied entry to Eritrea where they were to attend the “50thGolden Jubilee celebration of the construction of the Cathedral of Mary Kidanemehret (Mary, Covenant of Mercy).
Expressing in the letter their unpleasant sentiments on how the Cardinal and the other guests were handled, the Eritrean Church leaders have stated, “As we have come to understand later on, our Ethiopian guests had received the entry permits stamped on their passports, valid for one month. This notwithstanding, and most disconcerting for us as Eritreans, was the fact that they were made to wait at the airport of Asmara from the evening of Saturday 22nd to midday on Sunday 23 February, only to return home from there.”
Eritreans and Ethiopians citizens have always experienced smooth entry to each other’s country after the signed peace deal in 2018 which ended decades of unresolved conflicts between the two countries.
“This expectation of ours is derived from the fact that, in the wake of the reconciliation between Ethiopia and Eritrea, the citizens of both States enter each other’s country with no formal visas obtained beforehand,” reads part of the letter.
“Our experience, however, is that each time we go to Ethiopia, entry permission is printed on our passports only upon our arrival at the Ethiopian airport. We have also witnessed that the same parameters are applied with regard to the Ethiopian visitors coming to Eritrea. That is why we saw no need of asking an entry visa for our illustrious guests,” the letter from the Bishops Conference concludes.