On November 15, 2025, sixteen-year-old Yaphet Yemane Gebremariam was shot dead by Eritrean government soldiers in the village of Qeranakudo. Yaphet was unarmed, posed no threat, and was not protesting or resisting arrest. He returned to the soldiers not in defiance, but out of desperation—pleading for the return of his family’s only donkey, the essential tool that allowed him to provide for his widowed mother and younger brother. Instead of mercy, he was shot dead.

Yaphet was the primary provider for his family in the absence of his father, a common and tragic reality in Eritrea where men are lost to war, imprisonment, or forced disappearance. Every day, he worked to collect and sell charcoal, transporting it with the family donkey to feed his household. When Eritrean soldiers detained Yaphet and other boys, they seized the donkey along with the day’s earnings, leaving him economically stranded. His pleas for its return were ignored—and he was shot dead.

The atrocity did not end with Yaphet’s death. The soldiers left his body in public view for an entire day, denying his mother the right to mourn her son. In a sweeping act of retaliation and intimidation, more than 100 male villagers were arbitrarily arrested, and essential medicines were withheld from the detained—actions that constitute crimes against humanity under international law. Mourning itself became criminalized, grief treated as rebellion.

Urgent Appeal

We demand that international human rights and child-protection bodies issue immediate public statements condemning the extrajudicial killing of Yaphet Yemane Gebremariam, a minor, and take decisive action to hold the Eritrean government accountable by documenting, highlighting, and publicly exposing ongoing human rights violations in Eritrea.

United Nations and Affiliated Bodies (UNICEF and the UN Human Rights Council)

• Publicly condemn the extrajudicial killing.
• Demand accountability from the Eritrean government.
• Highlight and document ongoing human rights violations, including abuses against minors and civilians.
• Support and call for independent investigations into grave human rights violations.

Amnesty International & Human Rights Watch

• Document and publicly report on the killing as an extrajudicial execution of a minor.
• Issue strong public statements condemning the atrocity.
• Call for justice, accountability, and sustained international pressure on Eritrean authorities.

Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect

• Assess the killing within the framework of atrocity crimes and responsibility to protect.
• Publicly highlight risks to civilians and patterns of serious human rights violations.
• Urge preventive international action and accountability measures.

Call to Action

Yaphet’s death should have sparked outrage—but instead, it remains largely invisible to the world. We need your help to amplify this call for justice. By signing this petition, you join a global demand for accountability for the extrajudicial killing of a minor and for international action against the impunity of the Eritrean government.

Your signature is an act of solidarity and hope—a step toward ensuring that Yaphet Yemane Gebremariam’s story does not end in silence. Sign to give Yaphet a voice.