Corruption in Eritrea

Corruption in Eritrea is considered a deeply serious and growing problem. The level of corruption used to be considerably lower in Eritrea than in many other African countries. Indeed, it was traditionally viewed as having a “strong ‘anti-corruption’ culture” and considered relatively “egalitarian and corruption-free.” In 2006, a report by Bertelsmann Stiftung stated that corruption, as of that date, was not a serious problem within Eritrea. While noting that there had been “cases of corruption since independence,” they existed on a negligible level, although politically-motivated corruption allegations have been made. But, in fact, corruption is said to have been growing steadily worse ever since 1998, when, not long after the end of its decades-long war of independence, a border conflict with Ethiopia led to another war.

Another source stated in 2015 that over the previous decade, corruption had become ingrained in Eritrean everyday life, with bribes required for most government services. Other alleged types of corruption include the payments of ransoms for hostages “under the eyes of the government.”

On Transparency International's 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index, Eritrea scored 22 on a scale from 0 ("highly corrupt") to 100 ("very clean"). When ranked by score, Eritrea ranked 162nd among the 180 countries in the Index, where the country ranked first is perceived to have the most honest public sector. For comparison, the best score was 90 (ranked 1), and the worst score was 12 (ranked 180). Eritrea's score in recent years has declined from a high of 25 in 2012 to as low as 18 in 2014-2017.