Eritrea: The Long Road to Independence (part III& Final)

Introductory note: This is the final installment in a three-part series examining Eritrea’s long and arduous struggle for self-determination. While Part I explored the foundations of Eritrea’s colonial experience and the international decisions that denied Eritreans their right to independence, and Part II examined the systematic dismantling of Eritrean autonomy under Ethiopian rule and the events that ignited the armed struggle, this concluding chapter traces the evolution of that resistance into a full-scale liberation war. It explores the immense military and political challenges Eritrean fighters confronted, the global Cold War rivalries that shaped the conflict, and the decisive victories that ultimately culminated in Eritrea’s independence in 1991.

 

On September 1, 1961, Hamid Idris Awate – a seasoned soldier long regarded as a rebel (or bandit) by Italian, British, and Ethiopian authorities – fired the opening shots of Eritrea’s long armed struggle in the Gash Barka region alongside a small band of fighters armed with only a handful of aging rifles. Like a spark igniting a raging wildfire, what began as isolated, small-scale guerrilla attacks would, over time, grow into a fierce, nationwide liberation movement that spread steadily across the country.

Over the next three decades, Eritrean fighters waged one of the longest and most demanding wars of liberation in modern African history. Largely isolated diplomatically and receiving little meaningful international support, they confronted successive Ethiopian regimes that benefited from extensive foreign military assistance and geopolitical backing. At different stages of the conflict, Ethiopia received support from the United States, the Soviet Union, Israel, Cuba, East Germany, Libya, and South Yemen – reflecting the Horn of Africa’s immense strategic importance during the Cold War. (In fact, at certain points, both Cold War superpowers supported Ethiopia simultaneously, which was an unprecedented development.)

In the early years of the war, the United States emerged as one of Emperor Haile Selassie’s principal international backers, providing substantial military and financial aid to the imperial regime. Israel also established close security ties with Ethiopia, dispatching military advisers, intelligence personnel, and elite training units. Yet despite this external support, Ethiopian forces struggled to suppress the rapidly expanding Eritrean resistance, which evolved from a small insurgency dismissed as “banditry” into an increasingly organized and formidable liberation movement.

By the early 1970s, mounting military pressure from Eritrean fighters, combined with severe famine and rebellion in the Ogaden, had begun to destabilize the Ethiopian state itself. In 1974, Emperor Haile Selassie was overthrown by the Provisional Military Administrative Council (commonly known as the Derg), led by Lieutenant Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam. The new regime eventually aligned itself with the Soviet Union. However, American and Israeli assistance continued for a period, underscoring the complex and shifting geopolitical calculations surrounding the Horn of Africa.

By late 1977, Eritrean liberation forces had gained control over most rural areas and encircled key urban centers, including Massawa and Asmara. At the same time, Ethiopia found itself engaged in a major war with Somalia over the Ogaden region. Alarmed by the potential collapse of its ally, the Soviet Union intervened decisively, supplying Ethiopia with massive quantities of arms, military advisers, and logistical support. Thousands of Cuban and South Yemeni troops were also deployed to assist the Ethiopian war effort.

The intervention was a pivotal lifeline, as it enabled Ethiopia to reverse Somali advances in the Ogaden and, crucially, redirect its military focus toward Eritrea with renewed force. Backed by extensive Soviet assistance and reinforced by foreign troops and advisers, Ethiopia launched major counteroffensives aimed at crushing the Eritrean liberation movement “once and for all”.

Forced into a strategic retreat, the EPLF regrouped in the rugged Sahel region and transformed Nakfa into both a military stronghold and a powerful symbol of resistance. Between 1978 and 1981, Ethiopian forces launched five major offensives to capture the area, but each failed. In 1982, Mengistu escalated the campaign through Operation Red Star, deploying more than 136,000 troops in one of the largest military offensives of the war. Despite overwhelming numerical superiority and extensive Soviet backing, the operation failed catastrophically, costing Ethiopia tens of thousands of casualties and severely damaging military morale.

Following these defeats, the balance of the war increasingly shifted in favor of the EPLF. A decisive turning point came in March 1988 during the Battle of Afabet, where Eritrean forces inflicted a crushing defeat on Ethiopia’s Northern Command headquarters. Often compared to battles such as El Alamein and Dien Bien Phu for their strategic significance, the Battle of Afabet became one of the largest and most consequential military engagements fought in Africa since the Second World War.

Then, in February 1990, the EPLF launched Operation Fenkil, a meticulously coordinated land-and-sea offensive that liberated the strategic port city of Massawa. The operation severed one of Ethiopia’s most critical military supply routes and inflicted devastating losses on Ethiopian forces, with thousands killed, wounded, or captured. More importantly, it signaled that Eritrean independence was no longer a distant aspiration, but an approaching reality.

With Massawa secured, only Asmara and Assab remained under Ethiopian control. In May 1991, Eritrean forces defeated Ethiopian troops at Dekemhare before rapidly advancing through surrounding towns and entering Asmara on May 24. Assab, along the Red Sea, fell the following day. Remnants of the demoralized Ethiopian soldiers, which had long been regarded as part of Africa’s largest and best-equipped military force, surrendered in tens of thousands. Just days earlier, on May 21, Mengistu Haile Mariam had fled into exile in Zimbabwe.

As Eritrean fighters entered the capital that they had fought so long to control, they were greeted by scenes of jubilation and celebration. After thirty years of war, immense sacrifice, and widespread devastation, Eritrea had finally secured its freedom. Against extraordinary odds, Eritrean fighters had defeated a far larger and heavily armed military backed for decades by powerful international allies.

In the months following liberation, preparations began for an internationally supervised referendum intended to formally affirm Eritrea’s right of decolonization and complete the final diplomatic chapter of the independence struggle. On May 29, 1991, Isaias Afwerki, then Secretary-General of the EPLF, called upon the United Nations to “shoulder its moral responsibilities” and assist in conducting a free and fair referendum without delay.

Two years later, in 1993, Eritrea formally joined the international community as Africa’s fifty-second nation-state following an internationally monitored referendum in which Eritreans overwhelmingly voted for independence. Supervised by the United Nations, the Organization of African Unity, the Arab League, and observers from numerous countries, the referendum recorded a turnout of approximately 98.5 percent, with 99.81 percent of voters supporting independence – figures with few parallels anywhere else in the world.

Eritrea’s path to nationhood remains one of the most determined and resilient liberation struggles of the twentieth century. Against immense military odds, constantly shifting geopolitical alliances, and prolonged international indifference, Eritreans fought, endured, and ultimately prevailed. Their victory represented not simply the defeat of an occupying power, but the realization of a collective aspiration for sovereignty and dignity that generations had struggled to achieve.

Today, more than three decades after independence, the legacy of the liberation struggle continues to shape Eritrea’s national identity and historical consciousness. It remains a powerful reminder of the sacrifices demanded by freedom; the consequences of the flagrant breaches of international law; and the enduring determination of a people unwilling to surrender their national rights. As Eritreans commemorate the 35th anniversary of independence, the history of that long struggle continues to stand as both a source of national pride and a defining chapter in the broader history of liberation movements.