Germany: Dozens injured in unrest at Eritrean event

Police in the southwestern German city of Stuttgart on Sunday said dozens of people, including at least 26 officers were injured amid unrest surrounding an Eritrean cultural festival.

Along with 26 officers, four people participating in the event and two protesting it were injured, police said in a statement. Six of the injured officers were being treated at the hospital.

The clash was the latest in a string of incidents at such events in Germany and elsewhere, with fights breaking out between Eritrean government supporters and opponents. 

Police said they took 228 people into custody with police citing "massive violence" between the two groups.

What happened at the festival?

The police force described those attending as supportive of the dictatorial regime that rules the Horn of African country. There were roughly 80 to 90 people at the cultural event.

Some 300 officers were deployed to deal with several hundred opponents of President Isaias Afwerki's regime who came out to protest the event. 

Protesters were assigned an area to demonstrate, but they headed for the meeting venue, police said. The demonstrators then charged at those participating at the event, throwing metal rods and rocks at the police.

Police officers used pepper spray and batons to break up the crowd. Participants at the venue were moved to a safer location under police protection. Officers took down notes of those protesting. The event was all but over in two hours.

Stuttgart police vice president Carsten Höfler condemned the protesters' action saying that "neither the extent nor the intensity of the violence was apparent in advance."

City officials said there was no reason to ban the event in advance, but that they will take steps to prevent similar unrest in the future.

Why were people fighting?

The fight is the latest to break out at festivals to celebrate Eritrea's 30 years of independence. Eritrea has been ruled by Afwerki in a one-party dictatorship since 1993.

Those who fled the country said they fled danger and persecution so celebrations have angered them. Rights groups also say that Afwerki is one of the harshest and most repressive dictators in the world.

Eritrea has neither a legislature nor a judiciary, according to a report by the Human Rights Watch. It also has no independent civil society or media outlets.

Similar clashes were reported in Tel Aviv, Israel, in early September, with the event accounting for one of the most violent clashes among African asylum seekers and migrants in the city's recent memory.

In July, clashes between supporters and opponents erupted in the western German city of Giessen, which is not far from Frankfurt. The clash left 26 police officers injured. 

Analysts have previously said that events — if they're organized at the Eritrean Embassy, as was the case in Israel — generate funds for the heavily embargoed Eritrean government and serve to exert pressure on Eritreans who are far away from their homeland.

Edited by: Sean Sinico

While you're here: Every Tuesday, DW editors round up what is happening in German politics and society. You can sign up here for the weekly email newsletter Berlin Briefing.