Word: eritrean
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During the last famine the rebels and international agencies had a policy of live and let live. But in late October, Eritrean People's Liberation Front guerrillas attacked an unguarded convoy of 23 trucks on its way from Asmara, capital of Eritrea, to Mekele, capital of Tigre. One driver was killed, and the trucks -- loaded with 674 tons of food, enough to feed 30,000 people for a month -- were destroyed by grenades. The E.P.L.F. claimed that some of the trucks contained military equipment, a charge that U.N. officials deny. Since then, the E.P.L.F. has attacked two Ethiopian military-civilian...
Through the parched Eritrean highlands in northern Ethiopia, 25 trucks rumbled along a rough, winding road. Their cargo: 674 metric tons of food, enough to feed 30,000 people for a month, destined for drought victims in the provinces of Eritrea and Tigre...
...relief never reached its destination. About 25 miles south of the Eritrean capital of Asmara, secessionist rebels of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front opened fire on the unarmed, unescorted convoy, killing one driver and wounding three others. After clearing the vehicles of passengers, the rebels blasted the trucks with grenades, setting them ablaze. Half the food was burned beyond salvage, and all the vehicles were destroyed. The rebels claimed that some trucks carried government bombs and ammunition. "Completely untrue," said Michael Priestly, coordinator of the U.N. relief effort. "The people who did this did not even look under...
Mengistu has had more success against the Eritrean People's Liberation Front, the largest and strongest rebel force. More than 50,000 Ethiopian troops used tanks and dense air cover late last year to drive the Eritreans back to their stronghold in the war-ravaged town of Nakfa. The two sides are now stalemated. While the Ethiopians are wary of attacking Nakfa's warren of artillery-guarded trenches and barbed wire, the 25,000 guerrillas and their dependents must live an underground existence, though they have built an impressive infrastructure of schools, hospitals and farms...
Financial support for the rebels comes from some 500,000 Eritreans living overseas. The U.S. and other Western governments have not backed the E.P.L.F., in part because some of the group's leaders are Marxists. In addition, like many African countries, they are reluctant to support what some see as a secessionist movement. Says a U.S. State Department official: "(Such) support establishes precedents that could prove explosive all around the continent." Rebel leaders, however, have long insisted that the U.S. and the West have a responsibility to back Eritrean independence. They point out that in 1962 Haile Selassie asserted Addis...