When tiny Eritrea defeated sub-Saharan Africa's largest army on 24 May 1991, the EPLF's victory represented an awesome display of discipline, courage, organisational skill and operational competence. Every Eritrean regardless of political opinion, creed, sex, ethnicity and location was seized by a powerful euphoria shared by Eritrea's friends world-wide. However, to the dismay of the Eritrean people, their friends and the substantial proportion of former combatants, not only did the PFDJ, the successor of the EPLF, turn into one of the most tyrannical regimes in the continent, but they have also presided over the meltdown of the country's economy. This is due to incompetence exacerbated by the preposterous notion of self-reliance which has left the Eritrean people and the large majority of the former combatants impoverished, disenfranchised and isolated in the rapidly globalising and interconnected world.

In 2007, Eritrea was described by the World Bank ‘as the most food insecure country in the continent, and listed among those worst affected by the global food and fuel crisis in 2008’ (IRIN 2009). Since it is one of the most closed and repressive states in the world, it is difficult to determine with certainty the extent to which the severe food insecurity has deteriorated into widespread starvation. There have been reports of severe hunger in the country.