Eritrea: ERI-TV’s Head of Sports Department Defects

BBC Tigrinya confirmed that Kibreab Tesfamichael, the government’s media head of sports department - ERI-TV, abandoned his post and refused to return to Eritrea while he was covering the 12th African Games held from 19 to 31 August 2019 in Rabat, Morocco.  The report stated that Mr Tesfamichael has been relocated to a third country now.

After graduating from Barka Secondary School in 1997 in Asmara, he joined the Arts College of Asmara for further studies. After Arts College he secured a rare placement at Asmara University and studied journalism for another three years. He was even luckier to be assigned to the Ministry of Information upon completion, an opportunity which is confined to a selected group of individuals. 

Kibreab worked at the Ministry of Information for the last 15 years; he is an experienced sports journalist.  In 2016 he travelled to Brazil with Team Eritrea during the Games of the XXXI Olympiad (Rio 2016). He transmitted numerous stories from to Eritrea.  

BBC has confirmed that Kibreab is out of Morocco at this moment; however, it is not known exactly which country has granted him asylum.

During his spare time Kibreab used to write lyrics and he is the author of the TV series ‘Aye seb’ (Oh man!). 

Kibreab is the brother of the renowned journalist Natsinet Tesfamichael.