BBC

Hanna Petros Solomon breaks down in tears as she recalls how she and her siblings effectively became orphans 25 years ago when their father was arrested in Eritrea and jailed without trial. Their mother was subsequently detained - and no-one has heard from either of them - or of them - since.

"He had a towel on his shoulders like a sportsman," she tells the BBC about the last time she saw her father when she was 10 years old, and he had gone out for a jog.

"He used to work out every morning."

Her parents met when they both fought in the long liberation war that led to Eritrea's independence from Ethiopia in 1993.

Her father, Petros Solomon, was one of the senior leaders during the war, and many regard him as a national hero for his critical role.

After independence, he served as defence minister, then foreign minister, and headed the fisheries ministry when his troubles began.

That was in May 2001, when he and 14 other high-profile politicians signed an open letter to President Isaias Afewerki calling for the implementation of a constitution ratified after independence and demanding national elections. They became known as the G-15.

Isaias, the leader of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF), which had fought against Ethiopia, did not take the criticism well.

Unbeknownst to Hanna, her father had been dismissed as a minister, though he still went out early each day for exercise.

It was not until a few days after 9/11 - when the world was distracted by the al-Qaeda attacks on the US - that the country was to discover the full extent of Isaias’s displeasure in what became a watershed moment in Eritrea's history.

In the early hours of 18 September, the security forces positioned themselves outside the homes of 11 senior government officials in the capital, Asmara, on the president's orders.

Security agents picked up Petros as he left, wearing a tracksuit.

The family had no idea what had happened to him. Hanna and her three siblings went to stay with their paternal grandmother as their mother, Aster Yohannes, was away studying in the US.

Only days after Petros disappeared did things become clearer, Hanna says, about the painful memories.

"My classmates told me that my father sold out his country.

"That is when I understood how serious the situation was, and how people framed my dad and his colleagues who fought for the independence of their country. I was hurt."

In the US, Aster was shell-shocked by what had happened - and was in a very bad way. She asked government officials to issue the children passports, but they refused, telling her to come home.

After agonising about the situation for two years and reportedly receiving assurances from government officials, she packed her bags to return.

Hanna and her siblings desperately wanted her back - but they were also worried.

"I told her on the phone: 'What if they arrest you?'" Hanna remembers.

"She insisted nothing would happen to her, saying: 'I haven't done anything wrong, and am only coming to raise my children.'"

Luggage

Hanna says she later learned that President Isaias himself had promised Aster she would be safe. But while the family waited at Asmara International Airport on 11 December 2003, she failed to emerge through arrivals with the other passengers.

Their hopes began to wilt along with the flowers they had brought: "It was a long, long wait. Eventually we gave up and went back home.

"First we called to the US, friends and relatives told us they saw her off at the airport."

Then, ominously, an official called from the airport asking Aster to collect her luggage. That is when they realised she had arrived in the country but would not be coming home.

All pleas and requests for information were brushed aside in the months that followed. Instead, authorities warned Hanna's grandmother to stop asking questions.

The family later heard that Aster was being held in the infamous jail known as Karshelli in the heart of Asmara.

Hanna's father is believed to be detained, with the others arrested on 18 and 19 September 2001, in the remote, hostile and highly secretive prison known as Ela-Ero, located in eastern lowlands north-east of Asmara. Accused of treason, none of them has ever been tried or allowed to see their relatives.

At around the same time, the government also shut down all the fledgling independent newspapers and detained their editors and journalists - also believed to be imprisoned in Ela-Ero.

The Eritrean government - including its embassy in the UK - has not responded to the BBC's request for comment regarding the whereabouts of the prisoners or whether or not they are alive.

Hanna, like many thousands of young Eritreans fleeing conscription and in search of better opportunities, left the country - travelling secretly over the border without a passport.

Now 35 years old, she is married and lives in the US, working as a trauma specialist - but still feels traumatised herself by how she lost her parents.

As she stares at old pictures of her parents, she worries her memories will fade of the happy times before their arrest - the laughter, the family gatherings, the birthday parties: "My dad always wanted to gather people in the house, they were good days."

She also hankers after her mother's "unmatched" egg and potato sandwiches.

Read more here: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx1l6762jeq4o