It was time to stop by the camp of an opposition group on yet another side of the border. As was the case with the Democratic Movement for the Liberation of Eritrean Kunama (DMLEK), Eritrean National Salvation Front’s (ENSF) fighters in camouflaged uniforms are stationed here, with AK-47 assault rifles on their shoulders to maintain an anti-PFDJ front.

Not surprisingly, danger is all around this part of the border. Driving perilously close to where the trenches of the PFDJ could be seen without the benefit of binoculars, we were within reach of its guns and vulnerable to landmines intended to obliterate moving vehicles and their occupants. Often times, this, too, is one of the many routes through which Eritrean youth escape the dictatorship’s suffocating strangle.

Arriving at the camp safely, I exchanged warm greetings with each of the fighters, letting them know that we’re grateful for the fact that they have dedicated themselves to the nation’s cause at the expense of their families and personal ambitions.”

In turn, the fighters sent pleas to the diaspora about “the need for all of us to unite behind the struggle to remove the Dictator [Isaias Afewerki] in Eritrea.”

During a later interview, Mr. Ogbazghi Debus, former ENSF chairman and current head of its Foreign Office and Organizational Affairs, stated that the group envisions a nation based on “participatory democracy and rule of law and not the rule of one man.”