Eritrea-Politics

Politics:

From 1961 to 1993, Eritrea fought for their independence from Ethiopia. Hamid Idris Awate reportedly started the Eritrean Liberation Army which was the army for the Eritrean Liberation Front. Hamid is today celebrated as a hero of the revolution because he reportedly fired the first gun shot against Ethiopia in 1961. He died a year later of natural causes. The Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) was divided into four groups, each classified by ethnicity or by land divisions. During the first few years of the revolution, there were struggles within the ELF due to religion. The minorities of the group were Christians. They avoided becoming associated with ELF because of the fear that they would be taken over by the majority of the group, Muslims. However, soon after the beginning of the separation between Eritrea and Ethiopia, the Christian minorities could no longer stand to be under the control of Ethiopia, so they joined ELF. This resulted in a fifth division being created for them. In the early 70's, ELF seemed as though they would fail during their quest for a new nation because of a large separation with the group. However, years later, the groups that left the revolutionary group, ELF, joined one another to form a new rebellious group known as the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF). In 1974, Ethiopia was influenced by the Soviet Union, who supplied Ethiopia with arms until the late 1980's. Without the support of the Soviet Union, the war came to an end on May 28, 1993, the day when the United Nations officially recognized Eritrea as an independent nation from Ethiopia. Eritrea successfully separated from Ethiopia on a friendly note. The new country then tried to establish a democratic government, which promised its people fair elections and rights. However, in 1997, Eritrea was once again at war with Ethiopia due to border issues. There are still war prisoners being held hostage. Recently, the two rival countries have made deals to start exchanging the prisoners.

This map shows how some of the land was divided up after the Eritrean-Ethiopean border war.

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Sources:

Connell, Dan. "Eritrea: Enough! a Critique of Eritrea's Post-Liberation Politics." __AllAfrica.Com__. 6 Nov. 2003. 6 May 2007

<[|http://allafrica.com/stories/200311060876.html>.] "Eritrea." __Wikipedia__. 6 May 2007. 6 May 2007 <[|http://allafrica.com/stories/200311060876.html>.] "Politics of Eritrea." __Wikipedia__. 22 Apr. 2007. 6 May 2007 <[|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Eritrea>.] "Ethiopia Eritrea- Background on the Ethiopia Eritrea Border Conflict." Hans van der Splinter and Mebrat Tzehaie. 1998.