A note on the ELF written by American freelance journalist- Richard Lobban 1972

Picture by Lobban

Young Lobban with the Liberation Front of Guinea Bissau

Prof. Lobban with Eritrean Community in Australia

Prof. Richard Lobban in Somalia

Prof. Richard Lobban at Tahrir Square in Cairo 2012

A note on the ELF written by American freelance journalist- Richard Lobban (who walked 500 kms and stayed 2 weeks in the field) in 1972 that testifies the ELA was not a rag-tag army. Here are some highlights
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With undiminished shrewdness, he has moved to undercut the Eritrean Liberation Front, first, with military supporters of the ELF in Peking, and, second, with ELF's Sudanese friends who have provided the safe sanctuary so essential to most successful guerilla movements. In October, 1971, the Emperor visited China and conferred with Premier Chou En Lai and praised Mao Tse Tung for his ''outstanding achievements." During the six-day state visit, the first in 5, 000 years by a foreign Emperor, the Ethiopian leader signed trade pacts involving $80 million in interest-free loans to improve Ethiopia's commercial position. He praised the Chinese for being in a position to help the development of Third World countries. This visit was made, of course, before the American Presidential visit, and at a time when Peking was seeking African friends in her U.N. struggle for recognition vis-à-vis Taiwan.

The second move by the Emperor was his successful behind the scenes efforts, along with the World Council of Churches, to mediate between the rebellious southern Sudanese and the government in Khartoum. The remarkable agreement which emerged in Addis Ababa in March, 1972, gives great promise of ending the sixteen-year long civil war and the devastation of the Christian and pagan south. This agreement guarantees no trials of rebels. It also provides for the inclusion of southerners in the governing body for the south, and the incorporation of guerrilla units to form a southern Sudan Défense force.':' If the Sudanese government carries out its bargain, it is likely that its relations with Ethiopia will continue to improve. This may spell trouble for the ELF training camps just across from the Ethiopian border.

The ELA is very well armed, and, indeed, may be one of the best guerrilla armies, militarily speaking, in Africa's multi-fronted wars of national liberation. This army is designed to be highly mobile and, depending on the terrain, can move more than sixty kilometres in one day if there is need. In the war so far the ELF has concentrated primarily on military targets and personnel in its military attacks. Symbols of the Imperial Government and its officials have also been targets for attack.

One of the ELF's more significant military actions took place on November 7, 1966, when seventeen Eritrean towns were simultaneously attacked at midnight while an OAU summit conference was being held in Addis Ababa. This was designed to focus world attention on the Eritrean struggle. Another action occurred on March 25, 1967, when a notorious official from the Ministry of the Interior was shot and killed. During a large-scale Ethiopian offensive, the ELA reported 793 Ethiopian soldiers killed, while their own losses were relatively slight.

In March 1969 the ELF blew up an Ethiopian Airlines plan. In March 1969 the ELF blew up an Ethiopian Airlines plane at Frankfurt, Germany. In June of the same year another plane was attacked in Frankfurt and one was damaged in Karachi. In September a plane was hijacked to Khartoum and one to Aden. In December another hijack attempt was foiled over southern Europe. These events brought world attention to Eritrea. On May 17 and 19, 1969, railway tracks and bridges were destroyed between Djibouti and Ethiopia; an explosion occurred at the Ethiopian Consulate in Djibouti and another bomb exploded at the Central Bank in Addis Ababa.

A recent incident which received world-wide publication occurred near the central Eritrean city of Keren, which had earlier been occupied for eight hours in an ELA "mini-Tet  offensive (in that it sought only political goals, and military conquest was not the main concern). The ELA ambushed a train at a station and politely asked the passengers, including many military men, to disembark. Meanwhile, down the tracks another team had unfastened the railroad track at a trestle spanning a gorge. The train resumed its forward motion with no passengers and tumbled car by car into the gorge in a mass of fire  and crumpled metal. Not a shot was fired nor a pound of dynamite used, but an entire, militarily important, train was completely destroyed. Perhaps a superficial analysis might suggest that the war is Muslim vs Christian in nature, but a closer examination of the situation would indicate that it is more between oppressed and oppressor.

In March, 1967, a special U.S. State Department task force was set up to watch over the area's "problems. Heavy fighting between the Eritrean Liberation Army and Ethiopian forces broke out between April 23 and May 7, 1969, with the Ethiopian Army hoping to crush the ELA. Stiff resistance was met and six American "advisors" were reported killed. Later in 1969 four Americans allegedly on a National Geographic study team were held by the ELF for sixteen days before being released. Other incidents between the ELF and American servicemen have purportedly occurred, but they are publicly dismissed by the Ethiopians as being the work of "bandits" (shifta). On February 13, 1970, the American Secretary of State, William P. Rogers, reported that the American Consul General, Murray Jackson, had been kidnapped by the ELF near Asmara. After this, security tightened considerably and Americans were told to travel only in two-car convoys and not to drive far from the Asmara area. By the end of 1970, the Emperor declared a State of Emergency to employ martial law in the province. In January 1971 the ELF struck at Americans again and ambushed a G. I. from Brooklyn, who was reportedly "delivering U.S. Army mail. General Westmoreland visited there in February 1971 and inspected Army installations and the communications base at Asmara.

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The whole article can be assessed here; 

http://digitalcommons.ric.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1333&context=facultypublications
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Pictures from the train incident mentioned above, with thanks to Ahmed Raji for making them available at FB: