Eritrea government and opposition say 'all calm' after coup reports

The reports are impossible to confirm independently, and it is not clear if the mutineers formally surrendered.

Multiple sources reported that one of those held inside Eritrea's information ministry was the daughter of the president, Issaias Afeworki, pictured above. Geert Vanden Wijngaert / AP Photo

NAIROBI // Eritrea's government said today that all was calm in the capital Asmara a day after armed mutineers seized the information ministry, with opposition sites saying the stand-off was settled.

"All is calm today, as it was indeed yesterday," said Yemane Gebremeskel, the director of Eritrean President Issaias Afeworki's office.

The opposition website Awate.com, based in the United States but with close connections inside Eritrea, said that the commander of around 100 rebel soldiers had agreed to surrender.

"The face-off was solved when the government accepted his terms," Awate said, although there were no further details as to what will happen next.

The reports were impossible to confirm independently, and it was not clear if the mutineers had formally surrendered.

Amanuel Ghirmai, an Eritrean journalist in Paris for independent Radio Erena, said that army mutineers stormed the hilltop ministry early on Monday.

They reportedly ordered news presenters at the government-run television and radio station, the only source of media for the authoritarian state, to read a statement that they would implement the country's constitution.

The statement also reportedly ordered the release of prisoners of conscience.

However, while the state-run Eri-TV television and radio broadcasts were taken off air on Monday, they had resumed broadcasting on today, several sources said.

"Eri-TV, under regime loyalists, has resumed broadcasting live," said Awate. "All Ministry of Information employees have been released."

Multiple sources reported that one of those held inside the information ministry was the daughter of Mr Issaias, who has ruled the nation with an iron grip from independence in 1993, following an epic 30-year liberation war from Ethiopia.

Awate said the mutineers were led by an army commander called Saleh Osman, a hero of the 1998-2000 border war with Ethiopia, when he refused orders to abandon the key southern port of Assab, defending it and beating back invading Ethiopians.

"The uprising appears to have been a case of Saleh Osman trying to jolt back negotiations for democratisation he had been having with the president's office that have stalled," Awate said.