Eritrea is one of the newest and promising nations in Africa. Eritrea recently fought and won one of the longest wars in the world. By logic, the nation of Eritrea should not exist. Our secessionist province’s independence fighters ought to have defeated Ethiopia in their 30-years long struggle. They were out manned, out gunned, or abandoned by every ally; their cause was hopeless. We won by force of character, a unity and determination so steely not all the modern defenses; superpower support or economic superiority of Ethiopia could resist it. There are two points of view with regard to the creation, independence, and sovereignty of Eritrea. In this essay, I am going to argue that the Eritrean point of view is a historically accurate one..

Eritrea is located north of the Horn of Africa along the Southwestern coast of the Red Sea neighboring Sudan, Ethiopia, and Djibouti. It has nine main ethnic groups; the largest being the Tigrigna, Tigre, and Kunama. Each ethnic group has its own language, but Tigrinya and Arabic are the official languages. And its population of some 3.5 million is almost equally divided between Muslims and Christians. A small minority follows traditional beliefs.

            In ancient times, Eritrea was called Medri Geez, the land of the free, Medri Bahri, the land of the sea and Mareb Mellash, the land beyond the river. For instance, Massawa, the major Eritrean port, captured by Turks in 1517, was part of the Red Sea world, and looked eastward, rather than inland to the African continent. While the Ethiopians were effectively cut off from the outside world for over three centuries, the Eritreans enjoyed continuous contact with the Middle East, a contact which resulted in a distinctive economic and political developments. For example, for three centuries before they were expelled by the Egyptians in 1875 the Ottoman Turks controlled trade along the Red Sea from their base a Suakin near modern Port Sudan. Until the middle nineteenth century foreign contacts were essentially trade relations which a lot to encourage the nine ethnic groups which make up Eritrea to think of themselves as a national political unit (Pateman 29).

In contrast to external contacts, internal historical developments within the Horn of Africa, particularly in Ethiopia and the Sudan served to set Eritrea apart from other regions in the area.

There are plenty of rooms for dispute in historical research; one of the greatest historians has said, “there is not any where upon the globe a large tract of country which we have discovered destitute of inhabitants, or where first populations can be fixed with any degree of historical certainty” (Pateman 30). Eritrea is no exception; its history is one of waves of migrations and invasions. “Migrants” are people who move into a territory, and over generations, peacefully adapt to or perceptibly change the prevailing civilization. “Invaders” usually try to force the inhabitants to adopt different religions, languages, and ways of life. They are often successful, but are sometimes resisted with strong and sustained courage (Roy 22).

The Italians colonized Eritrea from 1890-1941. During its period as colonial ruler, Italy greatly improved Eritrea’s infrastructure, building one of the best communication and transportation systems in Africa. While Italy’s main goal was to benefit itself, and its efforts also contributed to the development of Eritrean national identity and structure.

However, from 1942-1952, during WWII the British defeated the Italians and established a colonial state over Eritrea. Eritrea became an important center for British and American operations in the region during the war (Negash 18).

Yet the United Nation Resolution 390A(V), passed on December 2, 1950, thus constituted Eritrea an independent unit to be federated with Ethiopia under the supreme ruler of the Ethiopian crown (Firebrace and Holland 149).

     The United States, with its strategic interests in Eritrea, and with its powerful influence in the United Nations, brokered a compromise in the form of a federation between Eritrea and Ethiopia. However, a majority of Eritreans opposed the move. In addition, The USSR representative to the UN also opposed the U.S.  Plan, and said, “The USSR has consistently supported the proposal that Eritrea should be granted independence and has continued to do so at the current session. We base our arguments on the fact all people have a right to self-determination and national independence. The USSR delegation appeals to all the other delegation to vote in favor of Eritrean independence” (Habteselassie 175).

At the facts show, the federal resolution, 390A(V), was a violation of basic human rights of the Eritrean people and an unworkable formula from every point of view. In accordance with the principles and substances of the UN Charter on self-determination, the UN should never have been the body that determined the future of the Eritrean people by federating Eritrea with Ethiopia. Only the people of Eritrea had that right. It would also be recalled that neither the Four-Power Commission USA, Russia, Great Britain, and France, nor the UN Commission of Enquiry carried out plebiscites or referendums to ascertain the wishes of the Eritrean people. Because of these unqualified wishes of the Eritrean people, the Ethiopian’s annexation of Eritrea led to the longest, bloodiest guerilla war on the African continent for the last 30 years.

The annexation of Eritrea was clear violation of international law, and there were no international protests against Ethiopia’s illegal annexation of Eritrea. No one disputed the fact that Emperor Haile Selassie, Ethiopian king at that time had illegally annexed the region in 1962. But the strategic importance of Ethiopia was too great to risk a conflict with its government over the issue of Eritrea. And the Organization for African Unity (OAU) and the UN were worried that allowing the creation of an independent country would unleash questions about borders all across the African continent, leading to bloody conflicts. Israel supported Ethiopia to prevent the creation of an independent Eritrea, and both the USA (1953-1977) and the Soviet Union (after 1977) supplied Ethiopia with modern weaponry to suppress the Eritreans by force. (Connell 81). Both super powers were concerned about the territorial integrity of Ethiopia and its access to the Red Sea. Control of Eritrea meant control over entrance of the Suez Canal as well as the Indian Ocean. And near the region as well were the oil fields of Arabia. Nonetheless, this cooperation sowed the seeds of the Eritrean liberation movement.

 Eritreans got their independence by defeating Ethiopians. Ahmed Idris Awate, an Eritrean Struggler, declared the beginning of armed struggle in the western lowlands. Awate died in the middle of 1962, but his liberation army continued to grow. The Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) was founded in 1958 and took up arms in 1961 to fight for independence. An offshoot of the ELF, the Eritrean Peoples Liberation Front (EPLF), split from the group in 1970, but the rival organizations later joined forces to battle the military government that ousted Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974 (Machida 40&$!).

            Led by the well-organized EPLF, the secessionist rebels drove Ethiopian forces out of Eritrea by 1976. However, the Ethiopian government regained control several years later with financial and military assistance from Cuba and the Soviet Union. Then, the EPLF decided on a strategy of withdrawal to their bases in Sahel. This meant abandoning positions won in 1977 and early 1978, including the city of Keren and other strategic towns and villages. On March 1988, the rebels inflicted pain on Ethiopia’s Revolutionary Army at the garrison town of Afabet (Tekie). According to British historian and African specialist Basil Davidson, the Afabet victory did any liberation movement ever score one of the biggest since Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam in 1954. The rebels had captured several thousand Ethiopian soldiers, three Soviet military advisers, and an array of equipment. (Pateman 145).

On May 27, EPLF Chairman Issaias Afwerki announced the sovereignty of Eritrea. Perhaps most important, the provisional Government ofEritrea honored the agreement it had reached with the EPRDF and the OLF (Oromo Liberation Front) in 1991 to postpone a referendum on the question of Eritrean independence for two years. On April 23-25, 1993, the PGE carried out the poll. A turnout of 98.5 percent voted overwhelmingly for independence.

 A 121-member UN observer mission certified that the referendum was free and fair. Within hours, the United States, Egypt, Italy, and Sudan extended diplomatic recognition to the new country. Thereafter, Eritrea joined the UN, the Organization of African Unity, and the Lome convention (Connell 263).

“More than 150,000 Eritreans died: 60,000 of them guerrilla fighters, and hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians. What this means for Eritrea, with only four million people, is that every family lost someone to the war” (C0bb 83). Worse still, there is a large number of disabled war by the war. Also, there is a problem with the combatants who survived the war. Many of these soldiers have spent most of their adult lives fighting the war, that is all they know how to do. It is going to be a very difficult for the Eritrean government to train these people with better skills, and basically integrate them back into the society.

 Women transformed Eritrean society by their work as educators, health officers, environmentalists, and political leaders. They actively participated in mobilizing civilians particularly women in the liberated areas.