Back حرب الاستقلال الإريترية Arabic Eritreya müstəqilliyi uğrunda müharibə Azerbaijani اریتریا موستقیل‌لییی اۇغروندا ساواش AZB Вайна за незалежнасць Эрытрэі Byelorussian Guerra entre Etiòpia i Eritrea Catalan Eritreas selvstændighedskamp Danish Eritreischer Unabhängigkeitskrieg German Guerra de la independencia de Eritrea Spanish Eritrea vabadussõda Estonian جنگ استقلال اریتره Persian

Eritrean War of Independence

Not to be confused with Eritrean–Ethiopian War.

Eritrean War of Independence
Part of Opposition to Haile Selassie, the Ethiopian Civil War, the Cold War, the Sino-Soviet split, and the conflicts in the Horn of Africa

Military situation during the Eritrean War of Independence
Date1 September 1961 – 24 May 1991
(29 years, 8 months and 4 weeks)
Location
Predominantly: Eritrea Province
Result

Eritrean insurgent victory

Territorial
changes

Independence of Eritrea

Belligerents
ELF (1961–1981)
Supported by:
EPLF (since 1973)
Tigray Region TPLF (since 1975)
Supported by:
 1961–1974
Ethiopian Empire
Supported by:
1974–1991
Derg (1974–1987)
PDR Ethiopia (1987–1991)
Supported by:
Commanders and leaders
Hamid Idris Awate †
Ahmed Nasser
Isaias Afewerki
Romodan M. Nur
Petros Solomon
Sebhat Ephrem
Mesfin Hagos
Tigray Region Meles Zenawi		 Haile Selassie I
Abiye Abebe
Mengistu H. Mariam
Tesfaye Gebre Kidan
Fisseha Desta
Merid Negussie Executed
Berhanu Bayeh
Abebe Haile
Strength
2,000 (1970)[27]
30,000 (1975)[28]
110,000 (1990)[29]		 11,000 (1970)[30]
120,000 (1984)[31]
Ethiopia 123,000 (1990)[32]
Casualties and losses
65,000–70,000 killed[33] 103,682 killed[a][34]
33,895 captured[35]
150,000–280,000 civilians killed[b][36][37]
440,000–600,000+ displaced[c][38][39]

The Eritrean War of Independence was an armed conflict and insurgency aimed at achieving self-determination and independence for Eritrea from Ethiopian rule. Starting in 1961, Eritrean insurgents engaged in guerrilla warfare to liberate Eritrea Province from the control of the Ethiopian Empire under Haile Selassie and later the Derg under Mengistu. Their efforts ultimately succeeded in 1991 with the fall of the Derg regime.

Eritrea was an Italian colony from the 1880s until the Italians were defeated by the Allies in World War II in 1941. Afterward, Eritrea briefly became a British protectorate until 1951. The United Nations convened after the war to decide Eritrea's future, eventually voting in favor of a federation between Eritrea and Ethiopia. As a result, Eritrea became a constituent state of the Federation of Ethiopia and Eritrea. The federation was intended to last for ten years, during which Eritrea would have limited autonomy, such as its own parliament, while remaining under the Ethiopian crown. However, Eritrea's autonomy was curtailed and the region was effectively governed as a police state by imperial authorities during the 1950s. As popular dissatisfaction with Ethiopian rule grew, an independence movement emerged under the banner of the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) in 1961.[40]

In September 1961, ELF head Hamid Idris Awate launched the Eritrean armed struggle for independence. During 1962, the federation was dissolved by the imperial government and Eritrea was formally annexed by the Ethiopian Empire. The dissolution of the federation resulted in many Eritreans supporting the ELF's armed struggle to achieve freedom. Ethiopian imperial army counterinsurgency campaigns against the ELF during the 1960s terrorized the civilian population, leading to greater local support for the insurgency and great international attention being brought to the war.[40] Following the Ethiopian Revolution in 1974, the Derg lead by Mengistu abolished the Ethiopian Empire and established a Marxist-Leninist communist state. The Derg enjoyed support from the Soviet Union and other communist nations in fighting against the Eritreans. The ELF was also supported diplomatically and militarily by various countries. During the Eritrean Civil Wars, the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) emerged as the primary liberation group in 1977, after expelling the ELF from Eritrea. The EPLF then took advantage of the Ogaden War to intensify its war of attrition against Ethiopia.

As the Mengistu regime declined at the end of the 1980s and was overwhelmed by Ethiopian insurgents groups, the EPLF decisively defeated Ethiopian forces deployed in Eritrea during May 1991.[41] The Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), with the help of the EPLF, defeated the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (PDRE) when it took control of the capital Addis Ababa a month later.[42] In April 1993, the Eritrean people voted almost unanimously in favour of independence in the Eritrean independence referendum, with formal international recognition of an independent, sovereign Eritrea in the same year.

  1. ^ The Pillage of Sustainablility in Eritrea, 1600s–1990s: Rural Communities and the Creeping Shadows of Hegemony, 1998. Page 82.
  2. ^ a b c Fauriol, Georges A; Loser, Eva (1990). Cuba: the international dimension. Transaction Publishers. ISBN 0-88738-324-6.
  3. ^ a b The maverick state: Gaddafi and the New World Order, 1996. Page 71.
  4. ^ Schmidt, Elizabeth (2013). Foreign intervention in Africa: From the Cold War to the War on Terror. Cambridge. p. 158. ISBN 9780521882385. China assisted the ELF with weapons and military training until 1972, when Ethiopian recognition of Beijing as the legitimate Chinese government led to China's abandonment of the Eritrean struggle.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  5. ^ Chinese and African Perspectives on China in Africa 2009, Page 93
  6. ^ Schoultz, Lars (2009). That infernal little Cuban republic: the United States and the Cuban Revolution. The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-3260-8.
  7. ^ a b Historical Dictionary of Eritrea, 2010. Page 492
  8. ^ a b Oil, Power and Politics: Conflict of Asian and African Studies, 1975. Page 97.
  9. ^ Eritrea: Even the Stones Are Burning, 1998. Page 110
  10. ^ Eritrea – liberation or capitulation, 1978. Page 103
  11. ^ Ethiopia at Bay: A Personal Account of the Haile Selassie Years, 2006. page 318.
  12. ^ a b Spencer C. Tucker, A Global Chronology of Conflict: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East, 2009. page 2402
  13. ^ a b c Connell, Dan; Killion, Tom (2011). Historical Dictionary of Eritrea. Scarecrow Press, Inc. ISBN 978-0-8108-5952-4.
  14. ^ Ethiopia and the United States: History, Diplomacy, and Analysis, 2009. page 84.
  15. ^ [2][3][13][14]
  16. ^ The Political Crisis in Ethiopia and the Role of the United States. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1992. ISBN 9780160372056. Archived from the original on 7 April 2023. Retrieved 19 March 2023.
  17. ^ Ciment, James (27 March 2015). Encyclopedia of Conflicts Since World War II. Routledge. ISBN 9781317471868. Archived from the original on 7 April 2023. Retrieved 19 March 2023.
  18. ^ Ciment, James (27 March 2015). Encyclopedia of Conflicts Since World War II. Routledge. ISBN 9781317471868. Archived from the original on 7 April 2023. Retrieved 19 March 2023.
  19. ^ https://www.jstor.org/stable/45304844 | The U.S. and Ethiopia: The Politics of Military Assistance. Armed Forces & Society
  20. ^ a b "Ethiopia-Israel". country-data.com. Archived from the original on 30 June 2018. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
  21. ^ U.S. Requests for Ethiopian Bases Pushed Archived 6 May 2016 at the Wayback Machine Toledo Blade, 13 March 1957
  22. ^ "Communism, African-Style". Time. 4 July 1983. Archived from the original on 22 December 2008. Retrieved 6 September 2007.
  23. ^ "Ethiopia Red Star Over the Horn of Africa". Time. 4 August 1986. Archived from the original on 1 October 2007. Retrieved 6 September 2007.
  24. ^ "Ethiopia a Forgotten War Rages On". Time. 23 December 1985. Archived from the original on 16 April 2009. Retrieved 6 September 2007.
  25. ^ [13][22][23][24]
  26. ^ Clapham, Christopher. Transformation and Continuity in Revolutionary Ethiopia. p. 277.
  27. ^ "FOREIGN RELATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES, 1969–1976, VOLUME E–5, PART 1, DOCUMENTS ON SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA, 1969–1972" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 March 2022. Retrieved 8 March 2022. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  28. ^ "TOTAL WAR IN ERITREA, 1978-84" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 January 2022. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  29. ^ "Eritrea (01/06)". U.S. Department of State. Archived from the original on 19 January 2022. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  30. ^ Negash, Tekeste. Eritrea and Ethiopia The Federal Experience (PDF). p. 152.
  31. ^ "TOTAL WAR IN ERITREA, 1978-84" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 15 December 2021. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
  32. ^ Tareke, Gebru (2016). The Ethiopian Revolution: War in the Horn of Africa. Eclipse Printing Press. p. 307. ISBN 978-99944-951-2-2. OCLC 973809792.
  33. ^ Tareke, Gebru (2016). The Ethiopian Revolution: War in the Horn of Africa. Eclipse Printing Press. p. 132. ISBN 978-99944-951-2-2. OCLC 973809792.
  34. ^ Tareke, Gebru (2016). The Ethiopian Revolution: War in the Horn of Africa. Eclipse Printing Press. p. 132. ISBN 978-99944-951-2-2. OCLC 973809792.
  35. ^ Tareke, Gebru (2016). The Ethiopian Revolution: War in the Horn of Africa. Eclipse Printing Press. p. 132. ISBN 978-99944-951-2-2. OCLC 973809792.
  36. ^ De Waal, Alexander (1991). Evil days: thirty years of war and famine in Ethiopia. New York: Human Rights Watch. p. 122. ISBN 1-56432-038-3. OCLC 24504262.
  37. ^ Cousin, Tracey L. "Eritrean and Ethiopian Civil War". ICE Case Studies. Archived from the original on 11 September 2007. Retrieved 3 September 2007.
  38. ^ De Waal, Alexander (1991). Evil days: thirty years of war and famine in Ethiopia. New York: Human Rights Watch. p. 122. ISBN 1-56432-038-3. OCLC 24504262.
  39. ^ Dan Connell (15 July 2019). Historical Dictionary of Eritrea. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-5381-2066-8.
  40. ^ a b Fessehatzion, Tekie (1983). "The International Dimensions of the Eritrean Question". Horn of Africa. 6 (2): 7–24.
  41. ^ "Ethiopia-Eritrea: A Troubled Relationship". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 26 March 2023. Retrieved 6 June 2019.
  42. ^ Krauss, Clifford (28 May 1991). "Ethiopian Rebels Storm the Capital and Seize Control". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 10 March 2021. Retrieved 6 June 2019.


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

Rich TVX News Network Site

Rich TVX News Network Info

© MMXXIII Rich X Search. We shall prevail. All rights reserved. Rich X Search