Eritrea

VI

History

The earliest inhabitants of Eritrea are thought to have moved from the Nile valley into the Mereb-Setit lowlands. Over the next several thousand years, Eritrea saw migrations of Nilotic, Cushitic, and Semitic-speaking peoples into what became one of the earliest regions of crop and livestock domestication in Africa. From as early as 3000 bc, Eritrea was involved in trade on the Red Sea. In the 4th century ad Eritrea was a part of the ancient Ethiopian kingdom of Āksum. It flourished as a semi-independent state under nominal Ethiopian sovereignty until it was annexed in the 16th century by the expanding Ottoman Empire.

A

Ethiopian Control

Eritrea became an Italian colony in 1890. Italian rule lasted until World War II when British forces conquered the territory. A British protectorate was established in 1941 and lasted until 1952, when the UN decided to federate Eritrea with Ethiopia as a compromise between Ethiopian claims for annexation and Eritrean demands for independence. Once in control, Ethiopia’s Emperor Haile Selassie moved to end Eritrean autonomy, and in 1962 Eritrea was transformed into a province of Ethiopia.

B

The War Leading to Independence

This provoked a militant nationalist resistance from a people who had been subjected to continued colonial domination. The Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF), founded in 1958, proclaimed an armed struggle for independence from Ethiopian control. The war with Ethiopia proved long and destructive. Since 1970 much of Eritrea has experienced famine conditions on several occasions, the result of drought and the disruption of war.

Organizational and ideological differences produced splits and civil strife within the ELF, culminating in the late 1970s with the emergence of the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) as a disciplined and effective military challenge to the Ethiopian government. After the Ethiopian revolution of 1974, the new regime in Addis Ababa continued to try to defeat the EPLF militarily, now with Soviet and Cuban assistance. But the Ethiopian forces controlled only the main urban centres, and from 1980 the EPLF increasingly gained the upper hand.

In 1990 the EPLF captured Mitsiwa, and in the following year took control of Asmara. Accepted internationally as a provisional government, the EPLF—with the approval of the new Ethiopian government—agreed to hold a referendum on independence. The referendum in April 1993 provided a virtually unanimous vote in favour of independence. On May 28, 1993, the UN formally admitted Eritrea to its membership. Isaias Afewerki of the EPLF became president of the new state.

C

Hanish Islands

In 1995 serious clashes marked Eritrea’s attempted invasion of the Hanish Islands, a small Yemeni-held archipelago at the entrance to the Red Sea, in strategic shipping lanes. The dispute was eventually referred to an international arbitration panel, and in 1998 a resolution was announced in the Hague. The largest island, Greater Hanish, was returned to Yemen; the remaining small islands were divided between the two countries, with fishing rights being granted to Eritrean fishermen. The dispute resolution was praised internationally.

D

The Post-Independence War

A bilateral extradition treaty was concluded between Ethiopia and Eritrea in November 1996, consolidating further relations between the two countries. Despite this, in June 1998, further conflict broke out between Eritrea and Ethiopia following a renewal of a long-running border dispute over a barren area of territory. In February 1999 sporadic fighting became full-scale war. Both sides had obtained sophisticated military equipment in spite of being among the poorest countries in the world. The fighting caused considerable humanitarian concern, especially in the light of severe famine in Ethiopia. In July a peace plan, mediated by the OAU, was welcomed and fighting subsided.

In May 2000 renewed conflict ended the fragile ceasefire and Ethiopian forces attacked Eritrean troops on several fronts in some of the worst fighting since the war began. According to figures given by both governments tens of thousands of soldiers were killed or injured in the first days of fighting alone, although it was hard to confirm figures as independent observers had been denied access to many areas. As a result, the UN imposed a 12-month arms embargo on Ethiopia and Eritrea, However, observers doubted this would have an immediate impact following two years of heavy stockpiling of weapons by both countries. The impact of the war was compounded by severe drought, and thousands of refugees from the fighting fled across the border into Sudan.