There is an unexplained telephone (telephone prefix 552) communication clamp down in Massawa. This is affecting the areas of Tewalet and the inner Massawa.
Neither the residents nor the public has been informed.
The official rumors state that the communication lines will re-open late April 2010.
Speculations are running high among officials and the public. One is that since the regime is leaking like a barrel full of holes, the paranoia has set in to the point where a complete silence on verbal communication where the inner circle is circumscribed into a limited area and persons.
The other speculation too has to do with the paranoia of the leader himself, one that has to do with direct threat to his life. It is to be remembered that the US have used the terrorists’ cell phones in Afghanistan and Somalia to pinpoint their whereabouts before firing missiles to kill them. Although this fear is unwarranted, it reflects the siege mentality that is now prevailing among the leadership in Eritrea.
It is not the first time that President Isaias Afewerki has used Massawa as his safe haven of the last resort. It has been a while now since Isaias has used Massawa as his choice of residence; so much so that the residents in Asmara joke that the capital city of Eritrea is no more their beloved Asmara, but Massawa. Every time he sees a threat in Asmara, he rushes to his bunkers in Massawa, where security has been rendered “manageable”.
Noting his conditions, the health personnel collaborated and extended their support to him by providing him accommodation to sleep with them (as the temperature is relatively better outside than in the underground cell and there is fresh air outside) and supplied him food from their own rations which were relatively better than the food provided to the prisoners. Later in that night, the prison officer (now I forgot his name) who was next in rank to “Wedi Granite” in authority learned that the health personnel had collaborated with the patient and he was very much angry that Kibrom had been staying outside the underground cell. He threatened the health personnel with punishment for their actions and ordered Kibrom to be returned to the underground cell. 
Sources from Asmara (Eritrea) indicate that the Afwerki administration has been on a panic mood since the day the UN has passed the resolution to impose sanctions on Eritrea. President Isaias Afwerki has fallen into old proven tactics that served him well in times of crisis. Information leaked out from Colonel Tesfaldet Habteselasie office (President’s Office) indicate that as a number of people that have been sidelined for a long time (in the Orwellian language of the PFDJ ruling party, “frozen”) are being “reactivated” to resume important posts, various reshufflings are also being made.
