On Sep. 1, 1961, 59 years ago, Hamid Idris Awate with his six fellow freedom fighters shot the first bullet for freedom from Adal. They had six old guns, but they had the courage and commitment. The Armed Struggle lasted, for 30 years.
On April 20, 1993, 22 of the first fighters of the Eritrean Liberation Front who returned to Eritrea met with then PGE Sec Gen Isaias Afwerki and presented 'Abu Ashara'. the rifle of Hamid Idris Awate who fired the first shot in Eritrea's long struggle for self-determination.
The Eritrean armed struggle was the longest armed national liberation struggle in Africa & highly developed & effective armed struggle in the world. Many of the largest & biggest battles after WWII; Red Star 1982, Nadew 1988, Fenkil 1990 & others, were fought in Eritrea.
Between 1974 & 1991, Ethiopia lost about 479,589 troops (1% of Ethiopia's then population of 46 million). Eritrea lost more than 65,000 her finest freedom fighters, in the liberation war. 30% of Eritrean freedom fighters, were women.
(History of Eritrea ታሪኽ ኤርትራ.تاريخ إريتريا: @Erihistory)
_________
__________________
An original arrest warrant from former Colonial police forces in 1963 against Hamid Idriss Awate, the first Eritrean who start the liberation struggle of Eritrean Independence on September 1st, 1961
(Frankfurter Junge 2: @shaebiaeritrea2)
__________
_____________________
_________
___________________
Hdri Media Interview with Hamid Idris Awate biographer Haile Selassie Woldu, The author worked on the biography for 35 years.
