Sophia Tesfamariam – Mouthpiece of the Eritrean dictatorship – now Vice President of the UN’s Children’s organisation

Martin Plaut

Factuality

Ownership

Sophia Tesfamariam – Mouthpiece of the Eritrean dictatorship – now Vice President of the UN’s Children’s organisation

UNICEF, the UN’s Children’s Agency, has appointed the Eritrean ambassador to the UN, Sophia Tesfamariam, as vice-president of its board. Ms Tesfamariam is certainly a controversial choice. She is perhaps best remembered by Eritreans for notorious remarks she is reported to have made after the tragic deaths of over 360 children and young people in Lampedusa, having drowned in the Mediterranean in October 2013. Instead of joining the grieving, she…