Word: eritrea
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Ethiopians, who are also righting a rebellion in the northern province of Eritrea, receive massive military aid from the Soviet Union. Until recently, Moscow also held Somalia in the iron grip of its friendship; but then it made the mistake of trying to expand its influence in the Horn of Africa by extending aid to both Somalia and Ethiopia, even though the two were ancient enemies. The volatile Somalis were enraged at the Russians' perfidy and stepped up their support for the Ogaden rebels. Meanwhile, the Soviets have reportedly supplied Ethiopia with MiG-21s and MiG-23s, heavy artillery...
...hollow boast, perhaps, but the fact is that the Ethiopian empire of the late Haile Selassie is today threatened with disintegration. Indeed, the two hottest wars going on anywhere in the world at present are both taking place within Ethiopia. In the northern province of Eritrea, Addis Ababa's Marxist military government of Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam has lost everything but the provincial capital of Asmara and the port cities of Massawa and Assab to the secessionist rebels. If Ethiopia should be defeated in both of its desert wars, it would lose more than 40% of its territory...
...1930s and '40s, the sands of northeast Africa were a cockpit of conflict between rival European colonial powers, chiefly Britain and Italy. Today, in both Eritrea and Ogaden, the central issue is the integrity of national boundaries, v. self-determination by individual provinces or tribal groups. The Ethiopians are resolved to retain the territory they acquired during a century of expansion. The Eritreans, whose land was an Italian colony until 1941, are fighting for independence; the Somalis are pursuing their dream of uniting the various Somali homelands under one flag. But these conflicts also have international significance. The Horn...
Nowhere have I seen so many mirages as I saw in Eritrea. To reach out one's hand for what is clearly a shimmering pool of water nestled among rocks, to see reflections in the water, and then to touch sand and feel insects biting: this happened several times, as if one could never learn the lesson. It got to the point where to save precious water, I dry-washed my hands with dirt, only later to find my fingers and palms itching from infinitesimal slivers of thorns hidden in the dirt...
...Tessenei, a town that the Eritreans have recently captured, we had good luck-there was a hotel, kept by an Italian, Archimede Parmigiani, 68, who has lived 42 years in Eritrea. There were no other guests. The kitchen had shell holes in the roof, the dusty flasks of Chianti were empty. His family has gone back to Bologna, but Parmigiani stays on. He asks: "What would I do in Bologna after so many years here...