SUMMARY
EIJM – AS (Harakat al Jihad al Islami: Eritrean Islamic Jihad Movement: Abu Suhail faction) was a Sunni Islamic group that fought the Government of Eritrea with an aim to oust the regime and install a new government based on the principles of Islamic law. It renamed itself Harakat al Islah al Islami al Eritree: Eritrean Islamic Reform Movement in 2003.
EIJM-AS was a hardline faction within the fractious Eritrean Islamic Jihad Movement (EIJM, also known as Islamic Salvation Movement since 1998). The original EIJM, led by Secretary General Sheikh Mohamed Amer, was created in 1988 following the merger of five groups. These groups were: Munezemet Arrewad al Muslimin al Eritrea, Jebhat Tahrir al Eritrea al Islamiya Wataniya (Eritrean National Islamic Liberation Front), Lejnet al Difae al Islami (Islamic Defense Committee), Harekat al Mustedafeen al Eritrea (Movement of Oppressed Eritreans), and al Intifada Islamiya (Islamic Uprising). As a result, the EIJM was comprised of several different factions with varying interests and levels of Islamic extremism; all factions were however united by the desire to overthrow the secular Government of Eritrea and replace it with an Islamic government. Membership of the EIJM included Eritrean exiles, social conservatives and Islamic youths as well as dissidents who had been accused of being too religiously extreme for the ELF and EPLF; the two organizations that had fought the Ethiopian regime for independence.
Within the EIJM, military leaders who perceived the political leaders of EIJM to be inefficient and critiqued them for establishing political contact with the Government of Eritrea formed the EIJM – AS faction from the military wing of EIJM on 25 August 1993. It was led by Mohammed Ahmed (Abu Suhail), who reportedly fought previously with the Afghan Mujahideen against the Soviets. EIJM – AS remained based in Sudan and most of its operations were concentrated in the west of Eritrea. EIJM-AS became the most militarily active rebel group in Eritrea. In 1997, it had 500 soldiers but claimed that 4000 Eritrean Muslims inside Sudan were being trained.
Reports on the EIJM and its factions are rare and the fractious nature of the organization has resulted in many reports identifying the EIJM but not distinguishing between the distinct factions and splinter groups from it. Furthermore, EIJM-AS specific links to other actors are not known. However, there are several links between EIJM and other actors that may also include or apply to the EIJM-AS faction. The Government of Sudan was alleged to have created the EIJM but this has not been substantiated. The Government of Eritrea accused Sudan of supporting EIJM by providing funding, food and weaponry to further its agenda to spread Islam across the Horn of Africa. The Government of Ethiopia also supported EIJM generally by sponsoring a conference of exiled Eritrean armed groups, which took place in Gonder, Ethiopia during the summer of 2001.
Furthermore, EIJM was reported to be allied with Al-Qaida. Members of EIJM served as part of Osama Bin Laden’s Shura Council and international network council, Majlis al Fatwa whilst EIJM received funding as well as training for its fighter from Al-Qaida in camps based in Sudan and Afghanistan. The EIJM was also connected to the Eritrean National Alliance or the Alliance of the Eritrean National Forces (ENA), which was a secular coalition of 13 groups intent on removing the Government of Eritrea led by President Isaias Afewerki. Although the EIJM is believed to be part of the coalition, it is not confirmed whether it operates alongside the ENA or it is integrated into the ENA completely. The status of the connection between the EIJM-AS specifically to the ENA has not been ascertained either.
