Eritrea People's Liberation Front
 |
|
| Chairman |
Isaias Afwerki Ramadan Mohammed Nur |
| Founded | 1970 |
| Dissolved | 1994 |
| Split from | Eritrean Liberation Front |
| Succeeded by | People's Front for Democracy and Justice |
| Headquarters | Nakfa, Sahel, Eritrea |
| Newspaper | Vanguard, Sagem and Adulis |
| Youth wing | National Union of Eritrean Youth and Students |
| Armed Wing | Eritrean People's Liberation Army |
| Ideology |
Eritrean nationalism Marxism-Leninism Eritrean socialism Secularism Self-determination Left-wing nationalism |
| Political position | Far-left |
The Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) (Tigrinya: ህዝባዊ ግንባር, ህግ?, Arabic: الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير إريتريا) was an armed organization that fought for the independence of Eritrea from Ethiopia. It emerged in 1970 as an intellectual left-wing group that split from the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF). After achieving Eritrean independence in 1991, it transformed into the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), which serves as Eritrea's only legal political organisation.
The EPLF was an egalitarian movement in which 30% of the fighters were women. The women fighters' influence in the patriarchal and quite conservative Eritrean society was significant.
EPLF and Eritrean Liberation Front first struggled during the Eritrean Civil War. In the early 1980s, new armed conflicts between the rival Eritrean Liberation Front led to the front being marginalized and pushed into neighboring Sudan. The EPLF remained the only relevant opposition to Ethiopian occupation in Eritrea.
The EPLF captured many Ethiopian soldiers during the war for independence and kept them in numerous prisoner of war camps, although captured soldiers of the EPLF (of their own) were not afforded the same treatment. Due to the humanitarian ethic of the EPLF however, these POWs were not harmed by their captors, but instead were even educated about the principles of the EPLF, as well as global politics. Some segments of the EPLF went as far as teaching prisoners of war some trades and skills.
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