The Battle of Massawa(E.P.L.F)Feb 8-10 1990 Part 2

This is the famous Battle of Massawa or also referred as Fenkil Operation which E.P.L.F Fighters liberated Massawa from the Ethopian Forces or also called the Derg,this battle that tooked placed also crippled supplies for the Ethopian army which would later lead to there submission and lead to there downfall! New York Times Report from 1990... Rebels in Ethiopia Claim Capture of Red Sea Port LEAD: Rebels in Ethiopia's northern province of Eritrea said today that they captured the strategic Red Sea port of Massawa today after opening a major offensive two days ago. ''The entire town is under the control of the E.P.L.F.,'' Yemane Gabre Meskel, a spokesman for the Eritrean People's Liberation Front, said by telephone from London. ''We received the news about an hour ago, but have no more details for the time being.'' This is the first time in 29 years of civil war that the rebels have claimed capture of Eritrea's main port. The offensive by the rebels occurred along a 120-mile front stretching from Keren in the central highlands of Eritrea to the coast. It followed a nine-month lull in fighting between Ethiopia's Soviet-backed Government and the secessionist front. Ethiopian officials in Nairobi acknowledged that the rebel offensive, which began on Thursday, had taken the Government by surprise. The army concentrated its efforts over the last two months on a major offensive against another rebel organization in northern Ethiopia, the Tigrean People's Liberation Front. A Tigrean rebel spokesman in London said earlier this week that over half the 300,000 Government troops in the state were tied up in operations against the Tigre rebels in the provinces of Wollo, Gondar and Shoa. A Last Supply Line Control of Massawa would allow the Eritrean rebels to cut the last open supply line to the 400,000 inhabitants in Asmara, the provincial capital and Ethiopia's largest city after Addis Ababa. The road links from Asmara and other Government-held towns in Eritrea to the rest of the country have been kept closed for the last two years by the rebels in Tigre province, immediately south of Eritrea. All food, fuel and other supplies destined for Eritrea's three million inhabitants enter the province by sea through Massawa, which is linked by a 70-mile highway to Asmara and other towns in the central highlands. Ethiopia has not admitted the loss of Massawa. In a statement, the Ethiopian Government said the renewed fighting ''has now dimmed the prospects of resolving the Eritrean problem through the stalled peace talks.'' But a senior Eritrean official said today in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, that the rebels would meet Government envoys in Sana, Yemen, on Feb. 15. The new offensive has also jeopardized United Nations plans to provide food in the next few months for 4 million drought victims in northern Ethiopia, mostly in Eritrea and Tigre. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/f...

Channel: News & Politics
Uploaded: November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am
Author: jetboy16

Length: 10:00
Rating: 5.00
Views: 7994

Tags: battle  Eritrea  Eritrean  Ethiopia  Ethiopian  Fenkil  massawa  North  of  operation  Somali  Somalia  Sudan  the  

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