Awate orawate.com is aUnited States–based Eritrean news website.[1][2]
Awate was created by Saleh Gadi as an Eritrean news website,[3] in September 2000,[4] several years after the 1997 creation ofAsmarino, another Eritrean diaspora news website.[5] Saleh lived inKuwait for several years through to 2001, and published reports critical of the Eritrean government's decision to attack Ethiopia, which started theEritrean–Ethiopian War. Saleh's passport was cancelled and he receivedpolitical asylum in theUnited States (US). Saleh createdAwate after his arrival in the US, with aim of providing an alternative to what he described as Eritrean government "infiltrat[ion] [of] every community in the world [with] networks of supporters everywhere who threaten people and, either directly or through relatives back home, punish them for speaking out".[3]Awate named itself afterHamid Idris Awate for his "fighting against overwhelming odds and standing up for what is right no matter how long it may take".[4]
Saleh Gadi, founder ofAwate,[3] continued as its editor as of 2012[update].[2]
The content ofAwate tends to be critical of the Eritrean government, playing a "counterpart to the Eritrean state".[5]
