Abstract
M.A.
With the exception of the Western Sahara, Eritrea was the only African country to have
been permanently occupied by another African country after the Second World War, when
the concept of self-determination had been widely recognised and accepted. Despite the
illegality of the Ethiopian annexation, the conflict in Eritrea was largely under-reported in
the Western media, especially in the 70s and 80s. There were also few protests from the
international community, especially African states and their leaders, many of whom viewed
the conflict in Eritrea as a secessionist problem. The Organisation of African Unity was
founded in Addis Ababa in 1963 and Ethiopia had a particularly prestigious position in
Africa.
During three decades the Eritrean nationalists conducted a war of liberation with no
parallel in Africa and one which can only been compared to the Vietnamese struggle
against French and American domination. The war in Eritrea was a protracted conflict that
involved many thousands of soldiers, foreign military advisors and heavy military
equipment on the Ethiopian side and a much smaller fighting force on the Eritrean side,
which only had the support of the civilian population.
This mini-thesis looks into those socio-economic aspects that enabled Eritrea's most
efficient and resilient liberation front, the Eritrean People's Liberation Front, EPLF, to
mobilise the Eritrean population around the goal of national liberation. The study pays
particular attention to how the EPLF obtained the highest degree of participation from the
civilian population and how it maximised all available resources to fight the Ethiopian
occupation forces.