Eritrea. EUNF armed struggle for the liberation of the Country begins
On November 20, seven Eritrean organizations in exile founded the Eritrean United National Front — EUNF with the aim of overthrowing the Isaias Afwerki brutal dictatorship. The birth of this military alliance is excellent news on a political level but there is little hope that it will have support within Eritrea, as the people are under terrible surveillance that represses every little dissent. For the second time in 30 years, the liberation of Eritrea is in the hands of Tigray and TPLF, in temporary difficulty in Ethiopia.
On November 20, seven Eritrean organizations in exile founded the Eritrean United National Front — EUNF with the aim of overthrowing the most brutal African dictatorship established by the former Marxist guerrilla Isaias Afwerki in 1991. The seven organizations are: EYSNS (Eritrean Youth Solidarity for National Salvation); ERDF (Eritrean Revolutionary Democratic Front); Eritrean National Salvation Front — Hidri; EPLA (Eritrean People’s Liberation Army); EUDC (Eritrean Unit for Democratic Change) and the Democratic Organization of the Blin Nation of Eritrea / Hodde.
The founding conference of the Eritrean United National Front (EUNF) was held from 18 to 20 November 2021 and subsequently released a concluding statement of the conference which was published on 17 December on the independent Information website: Eritrean Hub. The EUNF conference was held at a crucial moment in Eritrea’s history when the very existence of the country and its people is at stake.
With this in mind, delegates critically assessed the prevailing and rapidly changing political climate in Eritrea, in Ethiopia (where Isaias Afwerki is waging his own personal war alongside the fascist Amhara regime) and in the Horn of Africa. The delegates underlined the appalling suffering of the Eritrean people in the hands of the totalitarian regime of Isaias and his single party: the PFDJ — People’s Front for Democracy and Justice. The founding conference of the EUNF unanimously adopted a political charter and an organizational structure deciding to start the armed struggle for the liberation of their country.
“The totalitarian regime of Isayas / PFDJ represents an existential threat to our people and a worrying danger to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country which must be countered by all means. The founding conference then decides to undertake armed resistance with two objectives; to overthrow the PFDJ regime and end the conspiracies with their allies that have threatened our hard-won independence. This decision was not taken lightly, given our bitter past experience and the long suffering that our people had to endure to free our country from Ethiopian oppression, but we have no other choice “, reads the EUNF statement.
A political and military general command has been established to lead the democratic forces to a bitter and harsh war against the dictator. The Coordination has the task of promoting mobilization and political awareness activities inside and outside the country; recruit and train men and women who will form the liberation army.
The EUNF ensures that the unification process of the various political forces that compose it has been implemented in compliance with the political programs of each individual organization. At the moment, no political program of the after Isaias Afwerki has been explained to the public. During the conference, EUNF strongly condemned Afwerki’s aggression against the people of Tigray and the alliance with the Ethiopian Warlord Abiy Ahmed Ali and the banded Amhara leadership, stating that the Eritrean and Tigrinya peoples have common enemies: Abiy and Isaias and for this they must wage a coordinated fight against both regimes.
During the conference, an accurate analysis was made of the main actor who allowed Isaias Afwerki to establish a barbaric regime and remain in power for the past 30 years: the Eritrean army. The Eritrean Armed Forces have caused incalculable damage to the lives of 3.2 million citizens, to private and public property and to the country’s infrastructure. The military has been an active accomplice or at best a silent observer of the kidnapping, disappearance, incarceration in unknown places in inhumane conditions of tens of thousands of Eritreans, including military leaders and cadres who played key roles in the liberation. of the country from Ethiopian oppression.
Only thanks to the brutal repression of the army, Isaias Afwerki managed to survive to the revolt of war of liberation veterans against the DERG regime of Mènghistu Haile Mariàm, imprisoned in the concentration camp of Khor Menae in western Eritrea. The revolt, which began with requests to improve their living conditions in prison, was spreading to the soldiers in the camp and to the recruits who were present for training. On April 3, 2016, the army intervened to suppress the revolt in the bud before it spread to the rest of the country. To date, the number of victims remains unknown. Sources in the Eritrean opposition estimate that the massacre resulted in the deaths of over 500 veterans, soldiers and recruits.
Beyond the borders of Eritrea, the army has committed countless crimes, including active support for the Somali Islamic terrorists of Al Shabaab. From 03 November 2020, the Eritrean army has been the main instrument of death at the disposal of the Ethiopian Amhara fascist regime in the repression of over 47 million citizens in Tigray and Oromia. The Eritrean Armed Forces committed countless crimes against humanity during the military occupation of Tigray (November 2020 — May 2021), are it’s the main armed force in the current offensive in the Afar and Amhara regions. It has assumed defense functions in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa as well as coordinating ethnic cleansing in the capital against tens of thousands of Ethiopian citizens of Tigrinya and Oromo origin.
Among the senior Eritrean officers directly involved in the dirty genocidal war in Ethiopia stand out the names of Generals R’Esi Mrak and Wedi Moke and Colonel Tewolde, chief of intelligence for the southern front of Tigray. Currently the two Generals coordinate the military campaign in Afar and Amhara of the 8 Eritrean divisions sent by the dictator Afwerki to prevent the liberation of Addis Ababa while Colonel Tewolde is in charge of the defense of the Ethiopian capital and of the ethnic cleansing which began last September. Over 30,000 Tigers were interned in various concentration camps in areas still controlled by the Amhara regime. It is suspected that many of them have already been “finished” following the classic Nazi logic of the “final solution”.
The Eritrean army is currently the only force capable of ensuring the survival of the fascist Amhara regime and Afwerki’s puppet: Ethiopian Premier Abiy Ahmed Ali as the Ethiopian Federal Army — ENDF was destroyed during the Tigray Liberation War (May 2020) and the offensives in Afar, Amhara and Oromia led by the democratic forces (TPLF and Oromo Liberation Army) between July and October 2020. At the moment, the dictator Isaias Afwerki has total control of Ethiopia as Premier Abiy does not it has more than a national army and the paramilitary militias that have the fascist Amhara leadership do not have the military strength to place their leadership on an equal footing with the Eritrean dictator.
Although the Eritrean United National Front has appealed to soldiers to join the liberation struggle, it is highly unlikely that it will produce the desired effects in the short term by creating an uprising within the Eritrean armed forces. It is this finding that prompted the EUNF to seek a political alliance with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front — TPLF, the only military force capable of liberating Eritrea.
“To align and coordinate the efforts of the Eritrean people and the Tigray people, the EUNF supports without batting an eye the people of Tigray and their vanguard organization, the TPLF, which have consistently supported the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Eritrea. Right now, we witness the Eritrean people’s deadly enemy, the PFDJ regime, siding with the chauvinist forces in Ethiopia to unleash an unprovoked war and commit immeasurable human and material damage in Tigray. The EUNF vigorously condemns and vows to fight against these inhuman acts and to fight against these common enemies. To this end, the EUNF will align and coordinate its efforts with the people of Tigray and the Tigray Defense Forces. In turn, we call upon the people of Tigray and the defense forces of Tigray to maintain and strengthen their support for the EUNF’s armed resistance against the PFDJ ” reads the press release of the Eritrean United National Front.
The EUNF concludes by addressing the international community asking to condemn the authoritarian regime of Isaias Afwerki and his allies in Ethiopia. It also calls for diplomatic pressure to be exerted and for economic and other sanctions to be imposed on Eritrea and Ethiopia to end the conflict in Tigray, the suffering of the Eritrean people and end the two regimes, the main causes of the suffering of the Eritrean peoples and Ethiopian, the rapid deterioration of security and instability in the Horn of Africa region. Finally, it calls for assistance and asylum to be provided to all Eritrean and Tigrinya refugees who have fled their countries because they are exposed to ruthless abuses and crimes.
What possibilities are there for the rapid evolution of a concrete armed struggle against the regime of terror established by Isaias Afwerki? None at the moment.
EUNF acts in exile and has no contact with the Eritrean population living in the prison country, guarded by a dictator who has the right to life and death over all citizens — subjects. It is expected to receive support from Egypt and Sudan, where EUNF military and training bases could be built. The problem is how many recruits EUNF can enlist. Eritrean diaspora has always been concentrated in it rebuilding a life abroad and may not be eager to return to the Horn of Africa to liberate her country.
The importance of declaring the birth of the armed struggle against the Isaias regime lies in the constitution of this United Front which lays the foundations for a future regime change through an ethnic and political coalition that avoids an ethnic conflict after the fall of the dictator. TPLF, currently engaged in a severe conflict against the Eritrean army in the Afar and Amhara regions, remains the tip of the balance.
The dictator Isaias is playing all his cards to annihilate the TPLF and the Tigrinya people (7 million people) by fighting in Ethiopian territory to prevent the war, wanted in 2018 in agreement with Abiy and the fascist Amhara leadership, now reaches Eritrea . Only the annihilation of the Eritrean army in Ethiopia could create the possibilities for the EUNF to wage the war of liberation in Eritrean territory. However, even in this scenario, the active support of the troops of the TPLF and the OLA would be necessary to defeat what remains of the armed forces and to depose the tyrant Isaias.
The liberation of Eritrea is for the second time in thirty years, entrusted to the TPLF which in 1991 granted independence as thanks for the common struggle carried out against the Mènghistu regime. At the time, the young Isaias Afwerki fought alongside his Tigrinya cousins. Those were other times now light years away.
