IThere were violent riots at an Eritrea event in Stuttgart. Up to 200 people attacked participants in the event and police officers with stones, bottles and wooden slats, a police spokesman told the German Press Agency on Saturday. Ten officers were injured. Four people have been arrested so far. Videos on social media show men attacking police officers with wooden boards and bottles.
A police spokesman reported that around 200 people gathered on Saturday for an event organized by the Association of Eritrean Clubs in Stuttgart and the surrounding area. The clubs would sympathize with the government in Eritrea. At lunchtime, several small groups gathered at Bad Cannstatt train station and Stuttgart main station. They attacked the event participants at the Stuttgart Roman fort and threw bottles and stones at them. They also attacked participants and police officers with wooden slats.
First Giessen, now Stuttgart
The police used batons and pepper spray against the attackers, said the spokesman. The riots were still ongoing. “There are still skirmishes,” he said in the afternoon. Forces were ordered from surrounding police headquarters and from the police headquarters and the federal police. Forces would also be flown in by helicopter. The situation is confusing.
Eritrea, with a population of around three million, is located in northeast Africa on the Red Sea and is largely isolated internationally. Since independence from Ethiopia was won in a decades-long war 30 years ago, President Isaias Afewerki has ruled the country in a one-party dictatorship. Other parties are banned and freedom of expression and freedom of the press are severely restricted. There is neither a parliament nor independent courts or civil society organizations. There is also a strict military service and forced labor system, from which many people flee abroad.
In July there were riots at an Eritrea festival in Gießen, Hesse, with at least 26 injured police officers when opponents of the event attacked security forces by throwing stones and bottles and setting off smoke bombs. Among other things, the officers used batons against them. The organizers of the event in Giessen were close to the controversial leadership of the East African country. In August, violent riots broke out at an Eritrean festival in Stockholm, leaving more than 50 people injured.
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