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Ethiopia Government Defeats in Eritrea and Tigray
In March 1988, the EPLF initiated one of its most
successful military campaigns by striking at Ethiopian army
positions on the Nakfa front north of the town of Afabet,
where the Derg had established a base for a new attack
against the insurgents. In two days of fighting, the
Eritrean rebels annihilated three Ethiopian army divisions,
killing or capturing at least 18,000 government troops and
seizing large amounts of equipment, including armor and
artillery. Subsequently, the town of Afabet, with its
military stores, fell to the EPLF, which then threatened all
remaining Ethiopian military concentrations in northern
Eritrea.
The Ethiopian army's defeat in Eritrea came after setbacks
during the preceding week in Tigray. Using the same tactics
employed by the EPLF, the TPLF preempted a pending Ethiopian
offensive in Tigray with a series of attacks on government
positions there in early March. A government attack against
central Tigray failed disastrously, with four Ethiopian army
divisions reportedly destroyed and most of their equipment
captured. In early April, the TPLF took the town of Adigrat
in northern Tigray, cutting the main road link between Addis
Ababa and Eritrea.
The March 1988 defeats of the Ethiopian army were
catastrophic in terms of their magnitude and crippling in
their effect on government strategy in Eritrea and Tigray.
The capability of government forces in both regions
collapsed as a result. Subsequently, Ethiopian government
control of Eritrea was limited to the Keren-Asmera-Mitsiwa
triangle and the port of Aseb to the southeast. The TPLF's
victories in Tigray ultimately led to its total conquest by
the rebels and the expansion of the insurgency into Gonder,
Welo, and even parts of Shewa the following year.
Data as of 1991
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