Word: eritrean
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Ethiopia has urgently requested about $30 million in light arms and ammunition from the U.S. in order to carry on its fight against Eritrean secession ists, who are being supplied by Algeria and Syria with Russian machine guns and antiaircraft missiles...
...last week in Ethiopia's northern province of Eritrea, warfare continued between government forces and rebel soldiers who belong to the Eritrean Liberation Front, a well-armed Moslem guerrilla organization which is dedicated to whining Eritrea's independence from Ethiopia. The situation was summed up by a Western diplomat in Addis Ababa: "The country could fall apart one night...
While the fighting went on in the outskirts of Asmara, the Eritrean capital, the rebels were reported to have blown up an important bridge at Keren, on the road to the Sudan to the west. In a drive to cut off the road from the port city of Assab on the Red Sea, the main source of Ethiopia's oil, the guerrillas warned truck drivers: "Put your nose out of town and you will be roasted alive!" Nonetheless, government troops tried to consolidate their hold on Asmara. Refugees, many leading donkeys or pushing wheelbarrows laden with pots and pans...
...troubles in Eritrea date back to 1962, when Haile Selassie annexed the former Italian colony. Over the years, the rebel forces of the predominantly Moslem Eritrean Liberation Front gained control of the countryside, but have never made much headway against Ethiopian forces amassed at Asmara. Even after Haile Selassie was overthrown last September, the position of the guerrillas did not improve appreciably-partly because the front man for the new military government, General Aman Michael Andom, was himself an Eritrean and tried to solve the problem by granting greater autonomy to the province. Ever since Andom was killed last November...
...Ethiopian government, which had been toying with the idea of negotiating with the rebels, bluntly announced that it had decided instead to crush them by force. The same day, Eritrean guerrillas -armed to the hilt by Libya, Algeria and other militant Arab powers-ambushed and burned seven fuel trucks 30 miles from the Eritrean port of Assab. Two days later, they destroyed an Ethiopian army column, then launched the heaviest assault on the provincial capital in the 13-year history of the revolt...