25 Years Disappeared:
Proof of Life Now
18 September 2026 will mark 25 years since 12 Eritrean writers and journalists were arrested for peacefully expressing their views and calling for reform. They have not been seen since. For a quarter of a century, the Eritrean authorities have held them incommunicado—without charge, trial, or contact with their families.
Join PEN International and PEN Centres in demanding proof of life—now.
Why we must act:
In September 2001, President Isaias Afwerki’s government shut down Eritrea’s independent media and launched a sweeping crackdown on dissent. Twelve writers and journalists—including poets, playwrights, translators, songwriters, editors, and critics—were arrested for their peaceful expression and criticism.
Since then, the Eritrean authorities have refused to reveal where they are or whether they are even alive. Held in secret detention for nearly 25 years, without access to lawyers, medical care, or family contact, they are among the world’s longest-detained writers and journalists.
Their disappearance is not only an attack on freedom of expression, but a deliberate attempt to silence independent voices and erase an entire generation of Eritrea’s cultural and intellectual life. Silence enables impunity.
SIGN OUR PETITION
Take action today
Call on the Eritrean authorities to provide immediate proof of life for the detained writers and journalists, disclose their whereabouts, and end decades of secrecy and enforced disappearance.
Loading writers…
A Letter of Solidarity from Ben Okri
“We are holding candles for you in the Eritrean darkness. We will not let your names or your struggles be forgotten. We here at PEN International will go on making a big noise and raising a global racket till you are freed and every last one of you is accounted for.”
We refuse to let this story end as a tragedy. Instead it will be one of courage and resilience in the face of immeasurable suffering, of hope and persistence that prevail over oppression. We will get there. Dawit, you and your colleagues are not forgotten.
Rui Umezawa
storyteller, essayist and novelist
We live at a time when it is easy to feel helpless, as we wonder whether it matters to protest governments that, with utter impunity, persecute their people and, particularly, those authors and journalists who resist that repression. As someone who has been involved in denouncing disappearances around the world and especially in my own Chile and Latin America, I can attest to how much these protests do matter, what an impact they have on those who jail dissidents but, above all, on the prisoners themselves and their families. Our solidarity with the Eritrean Twelve will let them know, wherever they are and in whatever conditions, that they are not alone. Each person who signs up to this campaign for their freedom adds a tiny ray of light. And tiny rays, one after another, will illuminate the lives of those who fight for justice in an Eritrea that must not be forgotten.
Ariel Dorfman
Argentine-Chilean novelist and playwright