Eritrea: Africa's version of North Korea?

In this lonely corner of the world, the first sign of distress is the luggage. When one of the few international flights that are still operating here touched down one recent afternoon, the returning passengers emerged from baggage claim as if from a big shopping trip. Old metal trolleys squealed under the weight of mundane items: tires, a laptop computer, tubs of detergent and duffel bags crammed so tightly with food that tin cans bulged through the fabric.

The needs are acute in Eritrea, a narrow shard of sand and rock along the Red Sea that's presided over by one of Africa's most secretive regimes. As its quixotic experiment in economic self-reliance falters, the Ohio-sized country of 5 million has slipped into its deepest political isolation in its 16 years of independence.

The United States and others accuse President Isaias Afwerki of funneling arms and money to Islamist insurgents in Somalia and have threatened to slap him with sanctions. Analysts say Isaias is bent on wresting influence from Ethiopia — Eritrea's large southern neighbor and adversary in a 30-year liberation struggle — and is backing several rebel groups across the chaotic Horn of Africa.

Who needs allies?

In a rare interview, Isaias dismissed the allegations as "fabrications" by Western interests — including his favorite bogeyman, the CIA — that traditionally have sided with Ethiopia. The pariah label has reinforced his belligerent attitude toward a world that long ignored Eritrea's cries for independence, and one in which he now seems to have just one remaining friend, the wealthy Persian Gulf emirate of Qatar.

"Why would you want to have allies?" the 63-year-old president told McClatchy. "It's a sign of weakness."

A gruff, imposingly tall former guerrilla with a college professor's wardrobe and a Ron Burgundy moustache, Isaias helped lead the liberation war and has never let go of power. A decade after a devastating border flare-up with Ethiopia that remains unresolved, he's never held elections, banned opposition groups and independent media, and reportedly banished thousands of people to remote desert prisons where they languish without trial in "harsh and life-threatening conditions," according to a State Department human rights report last year.

In recent years, Isaias has seized U.N. World Food Program stockpiles and expelled or blocked most international relief organizations, claiming that his arid nation could produce enough food to feed all its people. Yet after consecutive poor harvests, and amid one of the worst hunger crises in East Africa in decades, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization warned last month that as many as two-thirds of Eritreans may be malnourished.

Isaias rejected the report — "We have no shortage," he said — but humanitarian groups say the government blocks them from accessing the areas that are thought to be the most affected. In the capital, Asmara, more and more children in frayed clothes and splotchy skin are begging on the streets, hinting at desperation in the countryside.

"A year or two ago, you never saw that," a diplomat said. "It means the safety net is failing."

Indefinite military service

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