Eritrea and its Struggles

War for Independence and Democracy

Eritrea’s war for independence raged for 30 years – the longest such war in Africa’s modern history.  Following factional conflict among the guerilla fighters, the separatist leadership that emerged promised an Eritrean future of democracy, development, economic justice, religious and ethnic tolerance, and the emancipation of women.  Through drought, privation and punishing Ethiopian bombardment, the guerillas fought bravely and with storied discipline.  They persisted against the much more heavily armed Ethiopian forces, which were supported first by the United States and then (after a military coup had turned Ethiopia into a Marxist state) by the Soviet Union.