5,000 soldiers to be demobilised

The Eritrean government is to demobilise 5,000 soldiers this week as part of a pilot project, the head of the National Commission for Demobilisation (NCD) said. Tekeste Fekadu told IRIN that 5,000 male and female soldiers will be released from the army at four discharge centres over a period three days from 24 April. The soldiers are the first of 200,000 who are due to be demobilised following the end of Eritrea’s border dispute with Ethiopia. Their early discharge is part of a pilot project, designed to test the government’s Demobilisation and Reintegration Process (DRP), under which two thirds of Eritrea’s army will be discharged over the next two years. The 5,000 soldiers to be sent home next week, chosen because they have valuable skills, will each receive two months' food rations from the World Food Programme (WFP). They will also be given money, medical tests and transport home. In an attempt to ease their transition back to civilian life there are also plans to offer advice about social and health issues such as HIV/AIDS, post-traumatic stress counselling and information about how to find work, continuation of education and learning new skills. If necessary financial, medical and social support will continue long after they have returned home. Since the beginning of the border war with Ethiopia in 1998, more than 6 percent of Eritrea’s population has served in the armed forces. As a result both the civil service and private companies have suffered serious staff shortages. But accommodating the needs and wishes of such a large number of people will be a massive task. A survey of 3,000 members of the armed forces, conducted by the government last year, found that 10 percent of them planned to continue their education after demobilisation, 10 percent wanted to learn a new skill, 30 percent wanted to return to their former jobs in government or private business, while 35 percent wanted to go into farming. If the pilot project is successful, the government hopes to commence the first phase of its DRP, under which 80,000 soldiers will be demobilised, although no date has yet been set. The DRP is estimated to cost nearly US $200 million, a proportion of which has already been pledged by the World Bank and other international donors.