[VIDEO] Eritrean History Nadow Eiz 1988

Liberation: Throughout the 1980s, the EPLF gained parity with Ethiopia on the battlefield. In March 1988, EPLF units hit the Ethiopians at their strongest point near Afabet, smashing the Nadow Command and, in doing so, shattered the ten-year stalemate and turned the tables on the Derg. In one 48-hour battle, Eritrean fighters wiped out three Ethiopian divisions and over-run the largest supply depot in the country, collecting enough heavy weapons, ammunition and equipment to supply it for the next year. In February 1990, using small but speedy motor boats to surprise the Ethiopians from the rear, the EPLF captured the port of Massawa and sealed off Ethiopia’s land forces from all but air-borne supplies.

The final battle of the war took place near Dekemhare in May 1991, in the midst of which Ethiopia’s mercurial dictator fled to Zimbabwe. When the Ethiopian army in Eritrea collapsed, the EPLF marched into Asmara and began the process of constructing the new state. Four days later, the Addis Ababa government surrendered to the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, a coalition of anti-government groups controlled by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front and assisted by the EPLF.