SUMMARY
ELF (Eritrean Liberation Front) was an armed separatist group active in the intrastate conflict over Eritrea in Ethiopia, which lasted from the 1960s until 1991. In 1952, Eritrea – a former Italian colony that had come under British military rule – had been merged into a loose federation with imperial Ethiopia, at the time ruled by Emperor Haile Selassie I. In 1955, Haile Selassie initiated a process that eventually led to the end of Eritrean self-governance, as the region came under direct Ethiopian rule; the federation was formally abolished in 1962. Haile Selassie also imposed policies that replaced the majority Arabic and Tigrinya languages with Amharic (spoken by the emperor’s own Amhara ethnic group) as the official language in Eritrea. This caused considerable resentment and anger in Eritrea, and eventually resulted in politico-military mobilization; it was in this context that ELF emerged. ELF’s primary goal was to achieve independence for Eritrea from Ethiopia; the group retained this objective even after Haile Selassie was overthrown in a coup in 1974 by a Marxist-Leninist military junta commonly known as the “Derg” (see Government of Ethiopia for more information). Ideologically, ELF was initially a nationalist movement, but as it grew it also incorporated increasingly vocal socialist and anti-imperialist elements.
ELF was created in July 1960 by Eritrean intellectuals and students exiled in Cairo, Egypt. Prominent founding names included Idris Mohammed Adem and Idris Osman Gelawdewos, the group’s first chairman and vice chairman respectively of the ELF’s ruling “Executive Committee”. When Osman Salah Sabbe joined the group in 1961, he and Idris Mohammed Adem became the group’s new leaders. Unlike its spiritual successor (there was no direct connection between the groups) Eritrean Liberation Movement (ELM) – a political organization finally disbanded by Ethiopian authorities in 1962 – ELF was determined to initiate an armed struggle; consequently, Hamid Idris Awate established the group’s armed wing in 1961. Following turbulence and dissatisfaction with the leadership within the group, a new executive “Revolutionary Council” (RC) was established in 1971; Idris Mohammed Adem was named the President of the RC at the same time. In 1975, the overall leadership of the group fell to Ahmed Mohammed Nasser.
ELF was marred by factionalism, as its various internal factions (such as the nationalists and socialists) competed for power. This in combination with the decision to organize the group into several regional commands meant that ELF was not able to establish a strong, unitary organizational structure. Initially, the group was mainly comprised of members from the Muslim population from Eritrea’s lowlands; however, as the group grew, it began recruiting members from other backgrounds as well, such as urban Christians. During the early 1970s, ELF was comprised of approximately 2500 fighters. By 1976, ELF had grown exponentially, having access to more than 20 000 fighters. However, in 1977 this number was estimated to have declined to 10 000; by 1980, ELF only had around 6000 fighters left.
ELF received financial support from several countries. For example, both Saudi Arabia and Iraq provided financial aid, each supporting competing factions within the group; while Iraq attempted to strengthen the Baathists within ELF, Saudi Arabia support the other, more conservative faction. At different points in time, ELF also received financial support from South Yemen, Libya, Kuwait, and Syria. Both Iraq and Syria provided political support, and the Iraqi government even provided some military support in early 1980. However, relatively early in the year Baghdad cut off all support, reportedly in response to ELF’s 1979 meeting with Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini as well as the ELF leadership’s purge of some of the more militant Baathists within the group.
Furthermore, ELF had a vacillating relationship with the Government of Sudan, which was largely conditioned by the status of the relationship between Addis Ababa and Khartoum. While Khartoum’s overall sentiments appear to have been that of support of the ELF and their cause, this support was not unwavering. In 1976, the relationship between the Ethiopian and Sudanese governments had reached its lowest point in a long time, when the former backed a failed coup attempt against the latter. In response, the Sudanese government, more openly than before, supported ELF, allowing it to transit supplies, including military equipment, through Port Sudan. This policy continued in 1977, and in January Sudanese president Numieri officially pledged his full support for the Eritrean cause. However, by 1979 the Sudanese support had been discontinued.
ELF suffered from much internal tension – particularly between nationalists and socialists, between urban and rural factions, and between Christians and Muslims - and the group suffered several splits. In 1970, three factions decided to splinter from ELF: Popular Liberation Forces 1 (PLF 1), PLF 2, and ELF-Ubel. Of the three, PLF 2 – led by Isaias Afwerki – was the most significant one. PLF 2 - comprised mainly of left-wing Christians speaking Tigrinya – accused the ELF of being sectarian, favoring Muslims and the “Arabization” of Eritrea. ELF attempted to eradicate these three splinter factions – jointly referred to as Tripartite Unity – which led to infighting among the Eritrean factions. PLF 1, PLF 2, and ELF-Ubel later merged to create EPLF.
Intermittent fighting between ELF and EPLF – parallel to the conflict against the Government of Ethiopia – occurred through the 1970s and early 1980s. By 1982, ELF had been forced out of the country into neighboring Sudan; after this, ELF was no longer active in the UCDP data. Some ELF members joined the EPLF, and following the independence of Eritrea in 1991, some ELF remnants opted to join the Eritrean ruling party People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ, see Government of Eritrea).
