Isaias Afwerki
The Eritrean leader is one of the lowest paid African leaders, earning a monthly salary of US$500, as of 2017. Two years prior, there were reports that he earned on average less than US$ 400 a month, making less than what some mining companies that had set up in his own doorstep and their workers make.
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Afwerki has been president since Eritrea’s independence in 1993. He led the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) to victory in May 1991, ending the 30-year-old Eritrean War of Independence.
He has been cited for human rights violations by the United Nations and Amnesty International. In 2015, Reporters Without Borders ranked Eritrea last in its press-freedom index for the eighth year running. His recent visit to Addis Ababa, the capital of its neighbour Ethiopia, to make peace was described as a major move for the 72-year-old leader who often remained isolated diplomatically.
