Battle of Afabet
| Battle of Afabet | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Eritrean War of Independence and the Ethiopian Civil War | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
 EPLF
|
 Cuba
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
|
Mesfin Hagos
|
Manuel Rodriguez |
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| Strength | |||||||||
| ~15,000 | 17,000 | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
|
4,600+ killed, 5,000 wounded |
 8,000–9,000 killed5,000 captured 28 killed7 captured |
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Decisive EPLF victory
Getaneh Haile Tariku Ayne †
The Battle at Afabet was a watershed battle in the Eritrean War of Independence. The fighting occurred from March 17 through March 20, 1988 in and around the town of Afabet.
The Nadew Command was one of four commands, or army corps, of the Ethiopian Second Revolutionary Army. Led by Colonel Getaneh Haile, it was composed of three infantry divisions and accompanying support units, and some sources state it had between 20,000 and 22,000 soldiers. Gebru Tareke, noting that the morale of the soldiers was at an all-time low, and none of the divisions "had even half of the numbers that would normally constitute an Ethiopian division – ten to twelve thousand men", quotes Ministry of Defense reports to state that there were 15,223 men in the three divisions.
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Wikipedia