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ANFET Editorial
January 21, 2026
The Regime That Fears the Living and Exploits the Fallen
There are moments when a nation is forced to confront the full moral bankruptcy of those who claim to rule it. The recent circulation of AI-generated videos using the image of General Sebhat Efrem—once a central figure in Eritrea’s military establishment, now brain dead and unable to speak for himself—is one of those moments. It is a political obscenity. And it exposes, with painful clarity, the nature of the system that has governed Eritrea for three decades.
General Sebhat Efrem was not an ordinary figure. He was a veteran of the liberation struggle, a disciplined commander, and one of the few individuals whose presence carried national weight. His reputation was built on service, not slogans. His authority came from sacrifice, not propaganda. And for that reason alone, he was a threat to a ruler who has spent his entire political life eliminating any figure capable of standing beside him.
Isaias Afwerki never wanted Sebhat Efrem as a successor.
He never wanted anyone as a successor.
The political logic of the regime has always been simple: no rival, no alternative, no future beyond the presidency. Ministers were sidelined, generals were neutralized, thinkers were imprisoned, and institutions were hollowed out. The system was engineered to ensure that no one—not even the most loyal—could accumulate enough credibility to be seen as a potential replacement.
Sebhat Efrem’s fate fits this pattern. The bullet that left him brain dead was not just an act of violence; it was a symbol of a political culture that devours its own. And yet, years later, the same regime that feared him in life now resurrects his image in death—digitally, artificially, and shamelessly.
This is not tribute.
This is exploitation.
The AI-generated videos circulating online are not about honoring Sebhat. They are about weaponizing him. They are about using his face—his legacy, his symbolic weight—to wage a psychological war against Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. It is a grotesque transformation: a respected general reduced to a digital puppet in a geopolitical feud.
This is the political afterlife the regime offers its own heroes.
The use of artificial intelligence only deepens the insult. AI, a tool of innovation and creativity, is being twisted into a mechanism for deception. It is being used to animate a man who cannot consent, cannot speak, and cannot defend his own legacy. It is a digital violation layered on top of a physical one.
And it reveals something essential:
the regime has run out of living figures with credibility.
It must now borrow the faces of the incapacitated.
For Eritreans—inside the country and across the diaspora—this moment should not pass quietly. It is a reminder that the struggle is not only political but moral. It is a reminder that truth itself is under assault. And it is a reminder that the dignity of our people, living and fallen, must be defended from those who would weaponize memory for power.
General Sebhat Efrem deserved better.
His family deserved better.
The Eritrean people deserved better.
ANFET stands with the truth.
ANFET stands with dignity.
ANFET stands against the exploitation of the fallen.
And we say clearly:
A regime that fears the living and abuses the incapacitated has already confessed its own weakness.
