ADDIS ABABAThe authorities in Eritrea on Monday April 23, 2012 sought to quash speculations about President Isaias Afewerki's health, saying he was fit as a fiddle and lambasted the United States for spreading what it described as lies about his condition, Reuters news agency reported.
Radio France Internationale, RFI reported that the government in the space of 24 hours issued three denials of rumours that the President had died, with one of them aired at 2 am on Tuesday April 24. Observers say this is unusual for a country whose authorities are not known to communicate much. Though the government’s Spokesman Yemane Guebremeskel qualified the rumours as unfounded, saying President Afewerki was at work, his Chief of Staff could not say why he had not appeared in public for weeks now.
According to the Sudan Tribune newspaper, Eritrean opposition groups have of recent been alleging that the former rebel leader's health has deteriorated due to liver disease for which he has sought medical treatment in Qatar. An Eritrean opposition official in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, Nesredin Ahmed of the Red Sea Afar Democratic Organization (RSADO), said that his organisation was still waiting for reliable information on the President's condition from its sources in the Eritrean capital, Asmara. Isaias, 66, has been in power since 1993 after leading his country to independence from Ethiopia.
