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Ethiopia The Tigray
Formed in 1975, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF)
was dedicated to the overthrow of the Mengistu regime (see
The Tigrayan Movement, ch. 4). It survived during its early
years only because of the money and weapons it received from
the EPLF. The EPLF supported the TPLF because the latter
formed a buffer between the Ethiopian army and Eritrea.
Despite subsequent political and ideological rifts between
the groups, the EPLF always maintained this buffer strategy.
On February 18, 1976, the TPLF convened its first congress,
at Dima. The group of about 170 people in attendance elected
a seven-member Central Committee. During May and June 1976,
the rebels gained international attention by kidnapping a
British family and a British journalist. By the end of the
year, the TPLF had about 1,000 full-time fighters. It
confined its military activities to attacking traffic along
the main road between Mekele, the Tigrayan capital, and
Asmera. Within two years, however, the TPLF had increased
its strength to the point where the group controlled large
parts of the countryside and threatened the Ethiopian army's
supply lines.
Throughout the late 1970s and the early 1980s, Tigray, like
Eritrea, suffered from the Derg's annual military
counteroffensives in north-central Ethiopia. During these
operations, the TPLF and the EPLF coordinated many of their
military actions against government forces. However, in 1983
a rift developed between the groups after the TPLF proposed
a unification of all anti-Mengistu elements, including the
EPLF. Relations further deteriorated when the EPLF failed to
inform the TPLF that it had started secret peace talks with
Addis Ababa. As a result, the TPLF refrained from supporting
the EPLF during the government's 1985 counteroffensive in
northern Ethiopia. Although there was a brief reconciliation
after the EPLF's victory at Afabet, the TPLF-EPLF
estrangement continued for the next several years. In March
1987, for example, the TPLF refused to be represented at the
EPLF's Unity Congress.
In February 1989, the TPLF, which by then included at least
20,000 full-time fighters plus an unknown number of parttime fighters, abandoned hit-and-run guerrilla tactics. The
TPLF, with support from the EPLF, which wanted to open a
second front against Mengistu, launched a conventional
attack against the town of Inda Silase in western Tigray.
The TPLF destroyed a 20,000-member Ethiopian army force.
Ethiopian military units then withdrew from Mekele and the
rest of Tigray without a fight. This defeat undoubtedly
helped trigger the unsuccessful May 1989 coup against
Mengistu.
Although government troops subsequently returned to
southern Tigray and reoccupied a few towns and villages, the
political and military initiative remained with the TPLF. On
March 10, 1989, the TPLF opened its third congress. Apart
from passing numerous antigovernment resolutions, the
delegates pledged to support the EPRDF, which had been
formed earlier in the year by the TPLF and a group known as
the Ethiopian People's Democratic Movement (EPDM), whose
members were primarily Amhara. In time, the EPRDF also
included the Oromo People's Democratic Organization (OPDO)
and the Ethiopian Democratic Officers' Revolutionary
Movement, both of which had been created by the TPLF in May
1990. Tigrayan strategists hoped the unification of these
groups eventually would enable the TPLF to widen its base of
support beyond Tigray. Elements in support of the
government, however, denounced the EPRDF as nothing more
than a TPLF organization in Amhara clothing.
In August and September 1989, TPLF forces, operating within
the framework of the EPRDF, moved south into Welo. They
overran towns along the main road, routed numerous Ethiopian
units, captured an array of Ethiopian army equipment, and
forced the temporary evacuation of the regional capital of
Dese. By the end of 1989, the EPRDF had succeeded in
defeating an Ethiopian garrison at Debre Tabor. This victory
enabled Tigrayan forces to cut the road between the cities
of Gonder and Bahir Dar and to force their way into northern
Shewa, less than 160 kilometers from Addis Ababa. Mengistu
responded to these developments by persuading the National
Shengo to order the mobilization of all former soldiers and
police up to age seventy. Additionally, the National Shengo
authorized increased military spending, assigned all
transport to the war effort, and armed local populations in
war zones. However, these actions failed to improve the
government's battlefield performance against the EPRDF.
During 1990 the EPRDF, which controlled all of Tigray with
the exception of one small government outpost, concentrated
on consolidating the gains it had made the previous year,
although in June the insurgents repulsed a major offensive
by the Ethiopian army. The year 1991, however, saw the EPRDF
launch three offensives in rapid succession that destroyed
the Ethiopian army and the Mengistu regime. On February 23,
the rebels began Operation Tewodros to drive the government
out of Gonder and Gojam, and they succeeded after only two
weeks of fighting. The inhabitants of both regions supported
the operation largely because of their opposition to the
heavy conscription campaign of the previous year and because
of their hatred of the villagization program.
In March the EPRDF launched Operation Dula Billisuma
Welkita into Welega, which resulted in the capture of the
regional military headquarters in Nekemte. Insurgent units
then advanced south and east and soon occupied Fincha, site
of an electric power station that served Addis Ababa. In
mid-May Operation Wallelign was begun along the Welo front.
Within hours the rebels had overrun Dese and Kembolcha. By
May 20, the EPRDF had captured all government positions in
southern Welo and northern Shewa and were advancing on Addis
Ababa from the west. The next morning, Mengistu fled the
country.
In the aftermath of these three campaigns, the Ethiopian
armed forces disintegrated. Tens of thousands of soldiers
crowded into Addis Ababa and sold their weapons or used them
to rob civilians. Countless other soldiers went home, while
many senior army and air force officers fled to Djibouti,
Kenya, or Sudan. Ethiopian naval personnel and vessels
dispersed to Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Djibouti.
During the final week of the war, the EPRDF slowly advanced
toward Addis Ababa, capturing the air force base at Debre
Zeyit along the way. The final battle for the capital
occurred on the morning of May 28, when the EPRDF entered
the city. Resistance to the takeover consisted largely of
street fighting and a low-level clash at the Grand
(Menelik's) Palace. About 600 to 800 people, both civilians
and combatants, reportedly died during the operation. For
the TPLF, the long road from the hills of Tigray had finally
ended in victory.
Data as of 1991
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