| Siege of Nakfa | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Eritrean War of Independence | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 EPLF |  Ethiopia | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Isaias Afwerki | Mammo Temtime | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 3,000 | 300 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Unknown | 225 killed | ||||||
The siege of Nakfa took place in 1977 in and around the town of Nakfa in western Eritrea. It was laid to siege by the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) against a small isolated Ethiopian battalion.
In November 1974, following the Ethiopian Revolution and the fall of Haile Selassie's regime a couple of months prior, efforts were initiated to reinforce troops in Eritrea to bolster the stationed army. The Ethiopian 15th Infantry Battalion, which had been deployed in Gojjam, commenced its march to Eritrea, passing through Bahir Dar, Gondar, Adwa, and Mendefera. After engaging with the Eritrean guerrillas near Elabored, the 15th Ethiopian Infantry Battalion headed to Nakfa to replace the Ethiopian 11th Battalion. On its way to Nakfa, the 15th Ethiopian Infantry Battalion overran defenses held by the Eritrean rebels in June 1975. [1]
Upon receiving critical intelligence from the departing unit, the 15th Ethiopian Infantry Battalion initiated strikes against EPLF-held territories, inflicting significant casualties on the guerrillas. In response, the rebels launched a counteroffensive from all directions in September 1975, attempting to overrun Nakfa. However, the Ethiopians defended their positions, repelling the rebels and constructing new trenches and foxholes. [2]
On September 17, 1976, the rebels launched a significant close-in offensive against Nakfa in an attempt to overpower the battalion stationed there. While providing close air support to the battalion, a jet fighter was downed by rebel gunfire. Efforts to capture the ejected pilot ensued, resulting in the deaths of 12 soldiers. Despite the ongoing siege and the continual influx of rebel reinforcements, the battalion defended Nakfa against countless attempts by the guerrillas to breach their defenses. Despite being outnumbered, they successfully repelled the relentless assaults. Though the Eritreans failed to take Nakfa, they managed to surround the battalion and put the garrison under siege. Raising the total number of their fighters to about 3,000 against the small garrison of 200 men, of whom 60 were wounded. [3] [4]
In late September 1976, in response to urgent telegraph messages from Major Mammo Temtime, commander of the 15th battalion, 100 paratroopers volunteered to help relive the trapped garrison. After landing a week later, the relived garrison were able to attack the entrenched guerrillas, taking control of the strategic hills around Nakfa. The garrison hoped for more reinforcements and supplies, but due to the power struggles in the Derg regime, the military commanders in Asmara failed to send any more reinforcements. As a result, the battalion was forced to withdraw back into Nakfa. [5]
At this point the besieged troops began to suffer from serious shortages of supplies and equipment. Due to the lack of rations, the garrison had begun to suffer from starvation, and the troops were forced to forage for food. In October 1976, the government troops numbered around 297, within a month that number had dwindled to 170 soldiers. The garrison desperately waited for months for the arrival of supplies and reinforcements. On January 13, 1977, the garrison sent an emotional telegram message to the military government:
Despite this appeal, the message was ignored by the Derg, which had become embroiled in a power struggle, resulting in the execution of General Tafari Benti. The matter concerning the Nakfa garrison appeared to have been disregarded. The government's inability to provide relief or reinforcement to the Nakfa garrison served to embolden the EPLF. The much-anticipated assault eventually occurred on March 22, 1977, when EPLF fighters attacked the exhausted Ethiopian defenders, at this point the defenders managed to rush through the EPLF lines and break through the encirclement. For the next three days, they suffered heavy casualties as they forced their way to friendly lines. By March 25, 53 infantrymen and 22 paratroopers managed to safely reach Afabet, the rest presumed dead. [7] [8]
The Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) is the military force of Ethiopia. Civilian control of the military is carried out through the Ministry of Defense, which oversees the Ground Forces, Air Force, Naval Force as well as the Defense Industry Sector.
The Western Somali Liberation Front was a separatist rebel group fighting in eastern Ethiopia to liberate the Ogaden region from Ethiopian control. It played a major role in the Ogaden War of 1977–78, assisting the invading Somali Army.
The Derg, officially the Provisional Military Administrative Council (PMAC), was the Marxist–Leninist military dictatorship that ruled Ethiopia, then including present-day Eritrea, from 1974 to 1987, when the military leadership or junta formally "civilianized" the administration but stayed in power until 1991.
The Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF), colloquially known as Shabia, was an armed Marxist–Leninist organization that fought for the independence of Eritrea from Ethiopia. It emerged in 1973 as a far-left to left-wing nationalist group that split from the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF). After achieving Eritrean independence in 1991, it transformed into the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), which serves as Eritrea's sole legal political party.
The Ogaden War, also known as the Ethio-Somali War, was a military conflict fought between Somalia and Ethiopia from July 1977 to March 1978 over the Ethiopian region of Ogaden. Somalia's invasion of the region, precursor to the wider war, met with the Soviet Union's disapproval, leading the superpower to end its support of Somalia and support Ethiopia instead.
Nakfa, Tigrinya: ናቕፋ, is a town in the Northern Red Sea region of Eritrea. It is also the name of a sub region of Eritrea.
The Eritrean Liberation Front, colloquially known as Jebha, was the main independence movement in Eritrea which sought Eritrea's independence from Ethiopia during the 1960s and the early 1970s. It was established in 1960 after Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie violated a 1952 UN resolution that guaranteed Eritrea the right to an autonomous government. Idris Muhammad Adam and other Eritrean intellectuals founded the ELF as a primary Pan Arab movement in Cairo, but the first attack was led by Hamid Idris Awate in 1961. Over the course of the 1960s, the ELF was able to obtain support from Arab countries such as Egypt and Sudan. However, tensions between Muslims and Christians in the ELF along with the failure of the ELF to ward off Ethiopia's 1967–1968 counter offensive internally fractured the ELF, causing it to split. By the mid 1970s, the ELF and the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF), an ideologically Maoist liberation movement, were the key liberation movements in Eritrea. The EPLF ultimately overtook the ELF as the primary Eritrean independence movement by 1977, and the ELF was subsequently defeated in 1981.
The Eritrean War of Independence was a war for independence which Eritrean independence fighters waged against successive Ethiopian governments from 1 September 1961 to 24 May 1991.
The Marxist–Leninist League of Tigray (MLLT) was a semi-clandestine Hoxhaist Communist Party that held a leading role in the Tigrayan Peoples' Liberation Front (TPLF) in the 1980s. The majority of the TPLF leadership held dual membership in the MLLT, including Meles Zenawi, Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia from 1995 until his death in 2012.
The Ethiopian Civil War was a civil war in Ethiopia and present-day Eritrea, fought between the Ethiopian military junta known as the Derg and Ethiopian-Eritrean anti-government rebels from 12 September 1974 to 28 May 1991.
The Kebur Zebenya was the Ethiopian imperial guard. Also known as the First Division, this unit served the dual purposes of providing security for the Emperor of Ethiopia, and being an elite infantry division. It was not, however, part of the organizational structure of the Ethiopian regular army as it was part of the Zebagna, the Addis Ababa Guard. The Kebur Zabagna was based in Addis Ababa.
The Battle of Afabet was fought from 17 March through 20 March 1988 in and around the town of Afabet, as part of the Eritrean War of Independence.
Conflicts in the Horn of Africa have been occurring since the 17th century BCE. The Horn of Africa includes the nations of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia.
The First Battle of Massawa took place from 1977 to 1978 in and around the coastal city of Massawa in Eritrea. The port was besieged by the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) against the forces of Ethiopia, and was one of two battles in and around the city.
The siege of Barentu took place in 1977 in and around the town of Barentu in western Eritrea. It was jointly laid to siege by the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) and the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) against the forces of Ethiopia.
The military history of Ethiopia dates back to the foundation of early Ethiopian Kingdoms in 980 BC. Ethiopia has been involved in many of the major conflicts in the horn of Africa, and was one of the few native African nations which remained independent during the Scramble for Africa, managing to create a modern army. 19th and 20th century Ethiopian Military history is characterized by conflicts with the Dervish State, Mahdist Sudan, Egypt, and Italy, and later by a civil war.
The siege of Saïo or battle of Saïo took place during the East African Campaign of World War II. Belgo-Congolese troops, British Commonwealth forces and local resistance fighters besieged the fort at the market town of Saïo in south-western Ethiopia in 1941. The siege lasted for several months, culminating in an Allied attack on the Italian garrison thereby forcing it to surrender.
The fall of the Derg, also known as Downfall of the Derg, was a military campaign that resulted in the defeat of the ruling military junta, called the Derg by the rebel coalition Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) on 28 May 1991 in Addis Ababa, ending the Ethiopian Civil War. The Derg took power after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie and the Solomonic dynasty, an imperial dynasty of Ethiopia that began in 1270. The Derg suffered from insurgency with different factions, and separatist rebel groups since their early rule, beginning with the Ethiopian Civil War. The 1983–1985 famine, the Red Terror, and resettlement and villagization made the Derg unpopular with the majority of Ethiopians tending to support insurgent groups like the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) and Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF).
Red Star Campaign, officially known as the Red Star Multifaceted Revolutionary Campaign was a 1982 Ethiopian Army operation during the Ethiopian Civil War aimed at eliminating separatist forces, specifically the EPLF from Eritrea. From February to June of 1982, more than 80,000 Ethiopian troops attempted to crush the EPLF in a series of offensives. Despite the operation, the government made no significant gains in Eritrea. Contrary to crushing the Eritrean will to resist, the unsuccessful operation actually strengthened it, prompting the people to rally behind the EPLF with increased fervor. Red Star dealt a personal and political blow to the regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam.
The Battle of Shire was fought from February 8 to 19 February 1989, in and around the town of Shire, as part of the Ethiopian Civil War, and resulted in the destruction of the Ethiopian 604th Army Corps.