Global InformationEritrean War of Independence information
| 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 | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
 ELF (1961–1981)Supported by:
 EPLF (since 1973) TPLF (since 1975)Supported by:
|
1961–1974 Ethiopian EmpireSupported 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 Meles Zenawi |
Haile Selassie I Abiye Abebe Mengistu H. Mariam Tesfaye Gebre Kidan Fisseha Desta Merid Negussie  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] 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.
- ^ The Pillage of Sustainablility in Eritrea, 1600s–1990s: Rural Communities and the Creeping Shadows of Hegemony, 1998. Page 82.
- ^ a b c Fauriol, Georges A; Loser, Eva (1990). Cuba: the international dimension. Transaction Publishers. ISBN 0-88738-324-6.
- ^ a b The maverick state: Gaddafi and the New World Order, 1996. Page 71.
- ^ 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) - ^ Chinese and African Perspectives on China in Africa 2009, Page 93
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b Historical Dictionary of Eritrea, 2010. Page 492
- ^ a b Oil, Power and Politics: Conflict of Asian and African Studies, 1975. Page 97.
- ^ Eritrea: Even the Stones Are Burning, 1998. Page 110
- ^ Eritrea – liberation or capitulation, 1978. Page 103
- ^ Ethiopia at Bay: A Personal Account of the Haile Selassie Years, 2006. page 318.
- ^ a b Spencer C. Tucker, A Global Chronology of Conflict: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East, 2009. page 2402
- ^ a b c Connell, Dan; Killion, Tom (2011). Historical Dictionary of Eritrea. Scarecrow Press, Inc. ISBN 978-0-8108-5952-4.
- ^ Ethiopia and the United States: History, Diplomacy, and Analysis, 2009. page 84.
- ^ [2][3][13][14]
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b "Ethiopia-Israel". country-data.com. Archived from the original on 30 June 2018. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
- ^ U.S. Requests for Ethiopian Bases Pushed Archived 6 May 2016 at the Wayback Machine Toledo Blade, 13 March 1957
- ^ "Communism, African-Style". Time. 4 July 1983. Archived from the original on 22 December 2008. Retrieved 6 September 2007.
- ^ "Ethiopia Red Star Over the Horn of Africa". Time. 4 August 1986. Archived from the original on 1 October 2007. Retrieved 6 September 2007.
- ^ "Ethiopia a Forgotten War Rages On". Time. 23 December 1985. Archived from the original on 16 April 2009. Retrieved 6 September 2007.
- ^ [13][21][22][23]
- ^ Clapham, Christopher. Transformation and Continuity in Revolutionary Ethiopia. p. 277.
- ^ "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.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ "TOTAL WAR IN ERITREA, 1978-84" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 January 2022. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
- ^ "Eritrea (01/06)". U.S. Department of State. Archived from the original on 19 January 2022. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
- ^ Negash, Tekeste. Eritrea and Ethiopia The Federal Experience (PDF). p. 152.
- ^ "TOTAL WAR IN ERITREA, 1978-84" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 15 December 2021. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
- ^ Tareke, Gebru (2016). The Ethiopian Revolution: War in the Horn of Africa. p. 307. ISBN 978-99944-951-2-2. OCLC 973809792.
- ^ Tareke, Gebru (2016). The Ethiopian Revolution: War in the Horn of Africa. p. 132. ISBN 978-99944-951-2-2. OCLC 973809792.
- ^ Tareke, Gebru (2016). The Ethiopian Revolution: War in the Horn of Africa. p. 132. ISBN 978-99944-951-2-2. OCLC 973809792.
- ^ Tareke, Gebru (2016). The Ethiopian Revolution: War in the Horn of Africa. p. 132. ISBN 978-99944-951-2-2. OCLC 973809792.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Cousin, Tracey L. "Eritrean and Ethiopian Civil War". ICE Case Studies. Archived from the original on 11 September 2007. Retrieved 3 September 2007.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Dan Connell (15 July 2019). Historical Dictionary of Eritrea. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-5381-2066-8.
- ^ "A/RES/390(V)A-B. Resolution of the United Nations General Assembly, 1950" (PDF). documents-dds-ny.un.org. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
- ^ "Eritrea: Report of the United Nations Commission for Eritrea; Report of the Interim Committee of the General Assembly on the Report of the United Nations Commission for Eritrea". undocs.org. United Nations. 2 December 1950. A/RES/390(V). Archived from the original on 18 March 2017. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
- ^ "Ethiopia-Eritrea: A Troubled Relationship". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 26 March 2023. Retrieved 6 June 2019.
- ^ 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.
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