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
Eritrea
Result

EPLF 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)[26]
30,000 (1975)[27]
110,000 (1990)[28]		 11,000 (1970)[29]
120,000 (1984)[30]
Ethiopia 123,000 (1990)[31]
Casualties and losses
65,000–70,000 killed[32] 103,682 killed[a][33]
33,895 captured[34]
150,000–280,000 civilians killed[b][35][36]
440,000–600,000+ displaced[c][37][38]

The Eritrean War of Independence was a war for independence which Eritrean independence fighters waged against successive Ethiopian governments from 1 September 1961 to 24 May 1991.

Eritrea was an Italian colony from the 1880s until the defeat of the Italians by the Allies of World War II in 1941, Eritrea then briefly became a British protectorate until 1951. The General Assembly of the United Nations held a meeting about the fate of Eritrea, in which the majority of the delegates voted for the federation of Eritrea with Ethiopia (UN Gen. Assembly UN Resolution 390 A),[39] and Eritrea became a constituent state of the Federation of Ethiopia and Eritrea in 1952. The Federation was supposed to last for ten years in which Eritreans could have mini sovereign decisions such as a parliament and some autonomy, but under the Ethiopian crown for further ones. The Assembly also assigned commissioner Anzio Mattienzo to supervise the process. Eritreans were supposed to claim Eritrea as an independent sovereign state after the ten years of federation. However, Eritrea's declining autonomy and growing discontent with Ethiopian rule caused an independence movement led by the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) in 1961. Hamid Idris Awate officially began the Eritrean armed struggle for independence on 1 September 1961 on the mountain of Adal, near the town of Agordat in south western Eritrea. Ethiopia annexed Eritrea the next year.[40]

Following the Ethiopian Revolution in 1974, the Derg 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 supported diplomatically and militarily by various countries, particularly the People's Republic of China, which supplied the ELF with weapons and training until 1972, when Ethiopia recognized Beijing as the legitimate government of China.[4]

The Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) became the main liberation group in 1977, expelling the ELF from Eritrea, then exploiting the Ogaden War to launch a war of attrition against Ethiopia. The Ethiopian government under the Workers' Party of Ethiopia lost Soviet support at the end of the 1980s and were overwhelmed by Ethiopian anti-government groups, allowing the EPLF to defeat Ethiopian forces in Eritrea in 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.

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  3. ^ a b The maverick state: Gaddafi and the New World Order, 1996. Page 71.
  4. ^ a b 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.
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  8. ^ a b Oil, Power and Politics: Conflict of Asian and African Studies, 1975. Page 97.
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  10. ^ Eritrea – liberation or capitulation, 1978. Page 103
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  20. ^ U.S. Requests for Ethiopian Bases Pushed Archived 6 May 2016 at the Wayback Machine Toledo Blade, 13 March 1957
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  29. ^ Negash, Tekeste. Eritrea and Ethiopia The Federal Experience (PDF). p. 152.
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