Eritrean War of Independence
This article needs additional citations for verification. (January 2016) |
Eritrean War of Independence | |||||||||
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Part of 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 | |||||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||||
ELF (1961–1981) Supported by: EPLF (since 1970) |
1961–1974 Ethiopian Empire 1974–1991 Provisional Military Government of Socialist Ethiopia (1974–1987) People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (1987–1991) Supported by:
| ||||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
Hamid Idris Awate † Abdella Idris Isaias Afewerki Mohammed S. Bareh Sebhat Ephrem Petros Solomon Mesfin Hagos |
Haile Selassie Aklilu Habte-Wold Mengistu H. Mariam Tesfaye Gebre Kidan Addis Telda | ||||||||
Strength | |||||||||
3,500 (1970)[26] 30,000 (1975)[27] 110,000 (1990)[28] |
29,000 (1975)[29] 120,000 (1985)[30] | ||||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||||
75,000 soldiers[31] |
The Eritrean War of Independence was a conflict fought between successive Ethiopian governments and Eritrean independence fighters 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, 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.[32]
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.[33]
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.[34] 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.
Background
The Italians colonised Eritrea in 1882 and ruled it until 1941.[35] In 1936, Italy invaded Ethiopia and declared it part of their colonial empire, which they called Italian East Africa. Italian Somaliland and Eritrea were also part of that entity, ruled by a Governor-General or Viceroy.[36]
Conquered by the Allies in 1941, Italian East Africa was sub-divided. Ethiopia liberated its formerly Italian occupied land in 1941. Italian Somaliland remained under Italian rule, but as a United Nations protectorate not a colony, until 1960 when it united with British Somaliland, to form the independent state of Somalia.[37]
Eritrea was made a British protectorate from the end of World War II until 1951. However, there was debate as to what should happen with Eritrea after the British left. The British delegation to the United Nations proposed that Eritrea be divided along religious lines with the Christians to Ethiopia and the Muslims to Sudan.[37] In 1952, the United Nations decided to federate Eritrea to Ethiopia, hoping to reconcile Ethiopian claims of sovereignty and Eritrean aspirations for independence. About nine years later, Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie dissolved the federation and annexed Eritrea, triggering a thirty-year armed struggle in Eritrea.[38]
Revolution
During the 1960s, the Eritrean independence struggle was led by the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF). The independence struggle can properly be understood as the resistance to the annexation of Eritrea by Ethiopia long after the Italians left the territory. Additionally, one may consider the actions of the Ethiopian Monarchy against Muslims in the Eritrean government as a contributing factor to the revolution.[39] At first, this group factionalized the liberation movement along ethnic and geographic lines. The initial four zonal commands of the ELF were all lowland areas and primarily Muslim. Few Christians joined the organization in the beginning, fearing Muslim domination.[40]
After growing disenfranchisement with Ethiopian occupation, highland Christians began joining the ELF.[41] This growing influx of Christian volunteers prompted the opening of the fifth (highland Christian) command.[41] Internal struggles within the ELF command coupled with sectarian violence among the various zonal groups splintered the organization.[41]
The war started on 1 September 1961 with the Battle of Adal, when Hamid Idris Awate and his companions engaged the occupying Ethiopian Army and police.[42] In 1962, Emperor Haile Selassie unilaterally dissolved the federation and the Eritrean parliament and annexed the country.[43][44]
War (1961–1991)
In 1970 members of the group had a falling out, and several different groups broke away from the ELF. During this time, the ELF and the groups that later joined together to form the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) fought a bitter civil war. The two organizations were forced by popular will to reconcile in 1974 and participated in joint operations against Ethiopia.
In 1974, Emperor Haile Selassie was ousted in a coup. The new Ethiopian government, called the Derg, was a Marxist military junta, which eventually came to be controlled by strongman Mengistu Haile Mariam. The new Derg regime took an additional three to four years to get complete control of both Ethiopia, Eritrea, and parts of Somalia. After this change of government, followed by international recognition, Ethiopia began a strategic alliance with the Soviet Union.
Many of the groups that splintered from the ELF joined together in 1977 and formed the EPLF. By the late 1970s, the EPLF had become the dominant armed Eritrean group fighting against the Ethiopian government. The leader of the umbrella organization was Secretary-General of the EPLF Ramadan Mohammed Nour, while the Assistant Secretary-General was Isaias Afewerki.[45] Much of the equipment used to combat Ethiopia was captured from the Ethiopian Army.
During this time, the Derg could not control the population by force alone. To supplement its garrisons, forces were sent on missions to instill fear in the population, including massacres which took place in primarily Muslim parts of Eritrea, including the villages of She'eb, Hirgigo, Elabared, and the town of Om Hajer; massacres also took place in predominately Christian areas as well.[40] The advent of these brutal killings of civilians regardless of race, religion, or class was the final straw for many Eritreans who were not involved in the war, and at this point many either fled the country or went to the front lines.[46]
From 1975 to 1977, the ELF and EPLF outnumbered the Ethiopian army and overran all of Eritrea except Asmara, Massawa, and Barentu.[47] By 1977, the EPLF was poised to drive the Ethiopians out of Eritrea, by utilizing a simultaneous military invasion from the east by Somalia in the Ogaden to siphon off Ethiopian military resources. But in a dramatic turnaround, the Derg managed to repulse the Somali incursion, thanks mainly to a massive airlift of Soviet arms. After that, using the considerable manpower and military hardware available from the Somali campaign, the Ethiopian Army regained the initiative and forced the EPLF to retreat. This was most notable in the Battle of Barentu and the Battle of Massawa.
Between 1978 and 1986, the Derg launched eight major offensives against the independence movements, but all failed to crush the guerrilla movement. In 1988, with the Battle of Afabet, the EPLF captured Afabet and its surroundings, then headquarters of the Ethiopian Army in northeastern Eritrea, prompting the Ethiopian Army to withdraw from its garrisons in Eritrea's western lowlands. EPLF fighters then moved into position around Keren, Eritrea's second-largest city. Meanwhile, other dissident movements were making headway throughout Ethiopia.
Throughout the conflict Ethiopia used "anti-personnel gas",[48] napalm,[49] and other incendiary devices.
At the end of the 1980s, the Soviet Union informed Mengistu that it would not be renewing its defence and cooperation agreement. With the cessation of Soviet support and supplies, the Ethiopian Army's morale plummeted, and the EPLF, along with other Ethiopian rebel forces, began to advance on Ethiopian positions. The joint effort to overthrow the Mengistu, Marxist regime was a joint effort of mostly EPLF forces, united with other Ethiopian faction groups primarily consisting of tribal liberation fronts (for example: the Oromo Liberation Front, the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front – who were jointly in battles against the ELF and other key battles where many Tigrayans were lost in the Eritrean Civil Wars – and the EPRDF, a conglomerate of the current TPLF regime and the marxist Oromo People's Democratic Organization who became prominent for recruiting Derg defectors as the EPLF and EPRDF occupied parts of the provinces of Wollo and Shewa in Ethiopia).[50]
Peace talks
The former President of the United States, Jimmy Carter, with the help of some U.S. government officials and United Nation officials, attempted to mediate in peace talks with the EPLF, hosted by the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta, Georgia in September 1989. Ashagre Yigletu, Deputy Prime Minister of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (PDRE), helped negotiate and signed a November 1989 peace deal with the EPLF in Nairobi, along with Jimmy Carter and Al-Amin Mohamed Seid. However, soon after the deal was signed, hostilities resumed.[51][52][53][54] Yigletu also led the Ethiopian government delegations in peace talks with the TPLF leader Meles Zenawi in November 1989 and March 1990 in Rome.[55][56] He also attempted again to lead the Ethiopian delegation in peace talks with the EPLF in Washington, D.C. until March 1991.[57]
Recognition
After the end of the Cold War, the United States played a facilitative role in the peace talks in Washington, D.C. during the months leading up to the May 1991 fall of the Mengistu regime. In mid-May, Mengistu resigned as head of the Ethiopian government and went into exile in Zimbabwe, leaving a caretaker government in Addis Ababa. A high-level U.S. delegation was present in Addis Ababa for the 1–5 July 1991 conference that established a transitional government in Ethiopia. Having defeated the Ethiopian forces in Eritrea, the EPLF attended as an observer and held talks with the new transitional government regarding Eritrea's relationship to Ethiopia. The outcome of those talks was an agreement in which the Ethiopians recognized the right of the Eritreans to hold a referendum on independence. The referendum was held in April 1993 and the Eritrean people voted almost unanimously in favour of independence, with the integrity of the referendum being verified by the UN Observer Mission to Verify the Referendum in Eritrea (UNOVER). On 28 May 1993, the United Nations formally admitted Eritrea to its membership.[58] Below are the results from the referendum:
Choice | Votes | % |
---|---|---|
Yes | 1,100,260 | 99.83 |
No | 1,822 | 0.17 |
Invalid/blank votes | 328 | - |
Total | 1,102,410 | 100 |
Registered voters/turnout | 1,156,280 | 98.52 |
Source: African Elections Database |
Region | Do you want Eritrea to be an independent and sovereign country? | Total | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Yes | No | uncounted | ||
Asmara | 128,443 | 144 | 33 | 128,620 |
Barka | 4,425 | 47 | 0 | 4,472 |
Denkalia | 25,907 | 91 | 29 | 26,027 |
Gash-Setit | 73,236 | 270 | 0 | 73,506 |
Hamasien | 76,654 | 59 | 3 | 76,716 |
Akkele Guzay | 92,465 | 147 | 22 | 92,634 |
Sahel | 51,015 | 141 | 31 | 51,187 |
Semhar | 33,596 | 113 | 41 | 33,750 |
Seraye | 124,725 | 72 | 12 | 124,809 |
Senhit | 78,513 | 26 | 1 | 78,540 |
Freedom fighters | 77,512 | 21 | 46 | 77,579 |
Sudan | 153,706 | 352 | 0 | 154,058 |
Ethiopia | 57,466 | 204 | 36 | 57,706 |
Other | 82,597 | 135 | 74 | 82,806 |
% | 99.79 | 0.17 | 0.03 |
See also
References
Notes
- ^ 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 c Connell, Dan; Killion, Tom (2011). Historical Dictionary of Eritrea. Scarecrow Press, Inc. ISBN 978-0-8108-5952-4.
- ^ 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) - ^ 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
- ^ Politics and liberation: the Eritrean struggle, 1961–86: an analysis of the political development of the Eritrean liberation struggle 1961–86 by help of a theoretical framework developed for analysing armed national liberation movements, 1987. Page 170
- ^ Tunisia, a Country Study, 1979. Page 220.
- ^ African Freedom Annual, 1978. Page 109
- ^ Ethiopia at Bay: A Personal Account of the Haile Selassie Years, 2006. page 318.
- ^ Historical Dictionary of Eritrea, 2010. page 460
- ^ a b Spencer C. Tucker, A Global Chronology of Conflict: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East, 2009. page 2402
- ^ The Pillage of Sustainablility in Eritrea, 1600s–1990s: Rural Communities and the Creeping Shadows of Hegemony, 1998. Page 82.
- ^ Ethiopia and the United States: History, Diplomacy, and Analysis, 2009. page 84.
- ^ [1][2][3][18]
- ^ a b c "Ethiopia-Israel". country-data.com. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
- ^ U.S. Requests for Ethiopian Bases Pushed 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.
- ^ [3][22][23][24]
- ^ "FOREIGN RELATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES, 1969–1976, VOLUME E–5, PART 1, DOCUMENTS ON SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA, 1969–1972".
- ^ "TOTAL WAR IN ERITREA, 1978-84" (PDF).
- ^ "Eritrea (01/06)".
- ^ "FOREIGN RELATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES, 1969–1976, VOLUME E–5, PART 1, DOCUMENTS ON SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA, 1969–1972".
- ^ "TOTAL WAR IN ERITREA, 1978-84" (PDF).
- ^ a b c Cousin, Tracey L. "Eritrean and Ethiopian Civil War". ICE Case Studies. Archived from the original on 11 September 2007. Retrieved 3 September 2007.
- ^ "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). Retrieved 17 March 2017.
- ^ "Ethiopia-Eritrea: A Troubled Relationship". The Washington Post.
- ^ Krauss, Clifford (28 May 1991). "Ethiopian Rebels Storm the Capital and Seize Control". The New York Times.
- ^ Mesghenna, Yemane (2011). "Italian colonialism in Eritrea 1882–1941". Scandinavian Economic History Review. 37 (3): 65–72. doi:10.1080/03585522.1989.10408156.
- ^ Epstein, M. (2016). The Statesman's Year-Book: Statistical and Historical Annual of the States of the World for the Year 1937. Springer. p. 675. ISBN 9780230270671.
- ^ a b Daniel Kendie, The Five Dimensions of the Eritrean Conflict 1941–2004: Deciphering the Geo-Political Puzzle. United States of America: Signature Book Printing, Inc., 2005, pp.17–8.
- ^ "Ethiopia and Eritrea", Global Policy Forum
- ^ "HISTORY OF ERITREA". www.historyworld.net. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
- ^ a b Killion, Tom (1998). Historical Dictionary of Eritrea. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow. ISBN 0-8108-3437-5.
- ^ a b c "The ELF leading the struggle (1962-1974)". globalsecurity.org.
- ^ Weldemichael, Awet Tewelde (2013). Third World Colonialism and Strategies of Liberation: Eritrea and East Timor Compared. Cambridge University Press. p. 60. ISBN 9781107031234.
- ^ Hickman Cutter, Charles (2001). Africa, 2001. Stryker-Post Publications. p. 177. ISBN 9781887985314.
When Emperor Haile Selassie unilaterally dissolved the Eritrean parliament and annexed the country in 1962...
- ^ Gebremedhin, Tesfa G. (2002). Women, Tradition and Development: A Case Study of Eritrea. Red Sea Press. pp. 4–5. ISBN 9781569021538.
- ^ "Discourses on Liberation and Democracy – Eritrean Self-Views". Archived from the original on 15 December 2004. Retrieved 25 August 2006.
- ^ List of massacres committed during the Eritrean War of Independence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The Scarecrow Press. 1998. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
{{cite book}}
:|website=
ignored (help) - ^ Waal, Alexander De (1991). Evil Days: Thirty Years of War and Famine in Ethiopia. Human Rights Watch. p. 50. ISBN 9781564320384.
- ^ Johnson & Johnson 1981.
- ^ Keller 1992.
- ^ "Ethiopia - Eritrea: A tale of Two-Halves". TesfaNews. 21 August 2014.
- ^ Fontrier, Marc. La chute de la junte militaire ethiopienne: (1987–1991) : chroniques de la Republique Populaire et Democratique d'Ethiopie. Paris [u.a.]: L' Harmattan, 1999. pp. 453–454
- ^ AP Images. Former President Jimmy Carter tells a news conference that peace talks between delegations headed by Alamin Mohamed Saiyed, left, of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front and Ashegre Yigletu, right, of the Worker's Party of Ethiopia will be resumed in November in Nairobi, Kenya, at the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta, Sept. 19, 1989. (AP Photo/Charles Kelly)
- ^ New African. London: IC Magazines Ltd., 1990. p. 9
- ^ The Weekly Review. Nairobi: Stellascope Ltd.], 1989. p. 199
- ^ Haile-Selassie, Teferra. The Ethiopian Revolution, 1974–1991: From a Monarchical Autocracy to a Military Oligarchy. London [u.a.]: Kegan Paul Internat, 1997. p. 293
- ^ countrystudies.us. [Regime Stability and Peace Negotiations]
- ^ Iyob, Ruth. The Eritrean Struggle for Independence: Domination, Resistance, Nationalism, 1941–1993. Cambridge [England]: Cambridge University Press, 1997. p. 175
- ^ "Eritrea". Archived from the original on 31 October 2009. Retrieved 25 August 2006.
- ^ "Eritrea: Birth of a Nation". Retrieved 30 January 2007.
Bibliography
- Gebru Tareke (2009). The Ethiopian Revolution: War in the Horn of Africa. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-14163-4.
- Johnson, Michael; Johnson, Trish (1981). "Eritrea: The National Question and the Logic of Protracted Struggle". African Affairs. 80 (319): 181–195. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a097304. JSTOR 721320.
- Keller, Edmond J. (1992). "Drought, War, and the Politics of Famine in Ethiopia and Eritrea". The Journal of Modern African Studies. 30 (4): 609–624. doi:10.1017/s0022278x00011071. JSTOR 161267.
- Charles G. Thomas and Toyin Falola. 2020. "The Anomaly of Eritrean Secession, 1961-1993." in Secession and Separatist Conflicts in Postcolonial Africa. University of Calgary Press.
Further reading
- Eritrean War of Independence
- Eritrea–Ethiopia military relations
- Separatism in Ethiopia
- Separatist rebellion-based civil wars
- 20th century in Eritrea
- Wars involving Libya
- Wars involving Cuba
- Wars involving Ethiopia
- Wars involving the Soviet Union
- Wars involving Eritrea
- Wars involving the states and peoples of Africa
- Wars involving the United States
- Proxy wars
- 20th-century military history
- Military history of Eritrea
- Military history of Ethiopia
- Wars of independence