The Eritrean National Security Office or NSO or National Security Agency is an intelligence agency of Eritrea.

Leadership

, the National Security Office is headed by

Abraha Kassa Abraha Kassa Nemariam (also known as Abraha Kassa and Wedi Kassa; born 15 July 1953) is an Eritrean Brigadier General. , he is the Director of the National Security Office of Eritrea, a post that he has held since 1997 or earlier. U.S. sanctio ...

, who has led the NSO since 1997 or earlier.

Structure

The NSO is divided into six offices, each of which is subdivided into ''Intelligence'', ''Arrests'' and ''Interrogations'' sections.

Role

The National Security Office reports to the

Office of the President Office of the President can refer to: * Office of the President of Brazil * Office of the President of the People's Republic of China (entity in the Office of the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party) * Office of the President (Republi ...

and is responsible for "detaining persons suspected of threatening national security" according to the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...

. In 2007, NSO agents arrested people at their homes after entering without warrants.

Actions

On ZTV, the NSO was accused, under the leadership of

and under direct orders from president

Isaias Afwerki Isaias Afwerki ( ti, ኢሳይያስ ኣፍወርቂ, ; born 2 February 1946) is an Eritrean politician and partisan who has been the president of Eritrea since shortly after he led the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) to victory in ...

, of detaining 150 Eritrean Muslims on 23 January 1997 and of executing them from 20:20 on 18 June to 02:00 on 19 June 1997. Mehari Yohannes, a former member of the Eritrea People's Liberation Front who was a security officer in the Asmara prison holding the detainees in June 1997, gave a lower execution count, stating that "nearly 30" Eritreans suspected of being

jihadists Jihadism is a neologism which is used in reference to "militant Islamic movements that are perceived as existentially threatening to the West" and "rooted in political Islam."Compare: Appearing earlier in the Pakistani and Indian media, Wes ...

were executed on 18 June 1997.

2021 sanctions

On 22 March 2021, the

Council of the European Union The Council of the European Union, often referred to in the treaties and other official documents simply as the Council, and informally known as the Council of Ministers, is the third of the seven Institutions of the European Union (EU) as ...

imposed sanctions against the NSO under Regulation (EU) 2020/1998, stating that NSO was responsible for " arbitrary arrests,

extrajudicial killing An extrajudicial killing (also known as extrajudicial execution or extralegal killing) is the deliberate killing of a person without the lawful authority granted by a judicial proceeding. It typically refers to government authorities, whethe ...

enforced disappearance An enforced disappearance (or forced disappearance) is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person by a state or political organization, or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organiza ...

s of persons and

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. definitions of tortur ...

by its agents" in Eritrea. The Eritrean Ministry of Information described the sanctions as "malicious", "trumped-up charges" for "ulterior motives".

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite web , title= Eritrea , website=

, date = 2008-03-11 , url = https://2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2007/100480.htm , access-date = 2021-03-24 , archive-url= https://archive.today/qw3eV , archive-date= 2021-03-24 , url-status=live {{cite journal , title = COUNCIL DECISION (CFSP) 2021/481 of 22 March 2021 amending Decision (CFSP) 2020/1999 concerning restrictive measures against serious human rights violations and abuses , journal =

Official Journal of the European Union An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority, (either their own or that of their su ...

, volume = 64 , issue = L 99 I , pages = 25–36 , publisher =

EUR-Lex Eur-Lex (stylized EUR-Lex) is an official website of European Union law and other public documents of the European Union (EU), published in 24 official languages of the EU. The Official Journal (OJ) of the European Union is also published on EU ...

, date = 2021-03-22 , url = https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=OJ:L:2021:099I:FULL&from=EN , url-access = , id=OJ:L:2021:099I:FULL , access-date = 2021-03-24 , archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210322124641/https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=OJ%3AL%3A2021%3A099I%3AFULL&from=EN , archive-date= 2021-03-22 , url-status=live {{cite news , title= The 'Executed': No Smoking Gun, but plenty of circumstantial evidence , date= 2003-03-13 , newspaper=

Awate ''Awate'' or awate.com is a United States based Eritrean news website. Creation ''Awate'' was created by Saleh Gadi as an Eritrean news website, in September 2000, several years after the 1997 creation of ''Asmarino'', another Eritrean diaspora new ...

, url= http://awate.com/the-%E2%80%9Cexecuted%E2%80%9D-no-smoking-gun-but-plenty-of-circumstantial-evidence , access-date= 2021-03-24 , archive-url= https://archive.today/Q2Nof , archive-date= 2021-03-24 , url-status=live {{cite news , last1= Muhumuza , first1= Rodney , title= Eritrea says EU sanctions on security agency are 'malicious' , date= 2021-03-22 , agency= AP , newspaper=

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...

, url= https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/eritrea-eu-sanctions-security-agency-malicious-76611668 , access-date= 2021-03-24 , archive-url= https://archive.today/PaT1V , archive-date= 2021-03-24 , url-status=live {{void, templates: {{cite news , last1= , first1= , last2= , first2= , pages= , language = , title= , trans-title = , date= , publisher= , newspaper= , url= , access-date= 2021... , archive-url= , archive-date= 2021... , url-status=live {{cite web , last1 = , first1 = , last2= , first2= , authorlink = , language = , title= , trans-title = , work = , publisher = , website= , date = , url = , format = , doi = , access-date = 2021... , archive-url= , archive-date= 2021... , url-status=live Eritrean intelligence agencies