More than 180 writers, including Nobel laureates Olga Tokarczuk and JM Coetzee, signed a letter to Eritrean president Isaias Afwerki. The letter demands proof of life for 12 writers who were arrested in 2001 and have since been detained incommunicado. Prominent literary figures such as Colm Tóibín, Elif Shafak, Isabel Allende, Ben Okri, Yann Martel, Kamila Shamsie, and Tsitsi Dangarembga also joined the signatories.
The appeal, dated September 18, commemorates 25 years since a government crackdown on independent press and free speech in Eritrea. This 2001 event systematically crushed the nation's independent voices within days, and the letter renews calls for information on the fate of the disappeared authors.