WALK WITH HISTORY
35 Years Since Operation Fenkil: Remembering That Memorable Victory
Between 8 and 10 February 1990, Operation Fenkil took place, with which EPLF forces liberated the coastal city of Massawa. It was a historic moment, which opened the doors to the total Independence of Eritrea, which from that moment was destined to become a reality shortly. In this article, we briefly retrace the entire history that, from victory to victory, led the women and men of the EPLF to that triumph 35 years ago.
By Filippo Bovo
https://www.opinione-pubblica.com/35-an ... -vittoria/
7 February 2025
(Software translation)
We are witnessing an important anniversary, that of Operation Fenkil with which the forces of the EPLF (Eritrean People Liberation Front) victoriously liberated Massawa, defeating the Ethiopian forces that had held it until then. In three days, from 8 to 10 February 1990, with an amphibious operation, the first in the thirty-year history of the War of Liberation that began in 1961, the fighters of the EPLF mobilized infantry, armored units and navy over an area of well over 1560 square kilometers: an impressive demonstration of military power and organizational capacity, such as to immediately terrify the Ethiopian army and regime, which in fact from that moment began to swerve in an increasingly irreversible manner.
Until then, Massawa, like all of Eritrea, had been firmly controlled by Ethiopian troops. Eritrea was still a province of Ethiopia, as had been unilaterally decided by
Negus Haile Selassie in 1962 with the dissolution of the previous Federation between Ethiopian and Eritrean states that had arisen ten years earlier, once the British military occupation government on the now former Italian colony had ended. Eritrea, despite having every reason to obtain independence, as recognized since the post-war period also at the UN, had instead seen it given to the Ethiopian Negus by the British and American Allies, in the most shameless contempt for international law. The protests of the Eritrean population and parties were immediate, but were harshly repressed by the Ethiopian forces: having acknowledged the impossibility of conducting the democratic struggle, the project of a revolutionary one emerged, with the foundation of the first Eritrean independence movement, the ELF (Eritrean Liberation Front).
It was one of its founders,
Idris Hamid Awate, who, by attacking an Ethiopian police station in September 1961, gave a more than symbolic start to the Eritrean War of Liberation, which would drag on until 1991. From one of its branches, years later, the even more combative and effective EPLF would emerge, capable of giving the Ethiopian troops an ever greater hard time. When the Negus regime collapsed in 1974, the pro-Soviet DERG regime took over, but nothing had changed: within it, the figure of Colonel
Menghistu Haile Mariam soon emerged, determined to triumph where his predecessor had failed, that is, in the
eradication of the Eritrean enemy.
In his plans, the EPLF was to be liquidated once and for all, and the Eritreans’ yearning for independence shelved forever.
Thanks to the huge aid received from the USSR, which also flowed from the large port of Massawa, the Ethiopian army was able to undertake a fierce fight against the EPLF forces, to the point of taking away from them, with
Operation Red Star in 1982, much of the territory they had previously gained. It was supported by the Soviet navy, which bombed the EPLF fighters from Massawa and the Eritrean coast, while the Ethiopian troops, supported by three thousand military advisors, attacked them from the ground. The impact on the civilian population was also dramatic, and soon after a painful famine hit them, further bringing the country to its knees, exposing it to the need for international aid. Not even all this, however, induced Menghistu to give up his objective: the imperative was the “
eradication of the Eritrean enemy”. But, as history reminds us, in the end it was he who was “
uprooted”, with his regime and the occupation exercised over Eritrea: because this is in fact the meaning in Italian of the word Fenkil, “
uprooting of the enemy”.
After Operation Red Star, the EPLF forces slowly regained their old strongholds, until in 1988, with the Battle of Afabet in March 1988, they dealt the enemy troops a blow equal to that inflicted by the Vietnamese on the French with that of
Dien Bien Phu. This was only the beginning: the USSR, recognizing its mistakes in having supported a military dictatorship to suppress a people's war, soon after withdrew its aid to the DERG junta, leaving Mengistu almost empty-handed. Other allies had also abandoned him. But Operation Fenkil, which would lead his regime into the vortex of internal contradictions, even forcing him to admit defeat, had not yet arrived.
After a year of careful preparations, concentrating the bulk of its forces in the Semhar area, on the night of February 8, the EPLF began to move very quickly, following two essential directions to open the real battle: on the one hand, closing the road from Asmara to Massawa, at the height of Gahtelay, to then march on Dongollo after covering its back; and on the other, infiltrating from the Semhar on Massawa, under cover of darkness. Having reached the city the next day, the real fighting began with a surprise move: from the sea, with very fast boats renamed Fenkil, the Eritrean fighters attacked, quickly putting the Ethiopian navy into crisis, while on land they clashed directly with the Ethiopian mechanized forces. The Ethiopian army, until then among the most powerful on the African continent, suffered an irreparable blow: in those 72 hours of battle it lost over 40 thousand of its men, between fallen and wounded, and 110 of its tanks, 80 of which were captured by the EPLF and 30 destroyed, while the Ethiopian navy was completely defeated.
Contributing to the irreparable demoralization of the Ethiopian army was also the capture of 300 of its high- and medium-ranking officers. The last faint roar of the mortally wounded beast was in the barricade of its remaining soldiers in the small Twalet, connected by the Sigalet causeway, holding civilians hostage. The EPLF promised the brigadier general who was carrying out that kidnapping amnesty in exchange for the release of the civilians, but he refused: it would be the DERG, at that point, that would not forgive him. So twelve hours later, when its unilateral ceasefire expired, the EPLF attacked the garrison, quickly winning against the weak Ethiopian resistance and freeing the civilians.
From that moment on, Menghistu's DERG entered the vortex of an uncontrolled decline. Having acknowledged defeat and fallen into despair, he heavily bombed Massawa with the air force, destroying its port and civilian infrastructure, and at the same time began cosmetic reforms, in the illusory hope that they would be enough to survive politically. The Ethiopian Workers' Party decided to change its name to the Democratic Party of Ethiopian Unity, and to undertake a series of economic reforms along the lines of
Gorbachev's USSR, while rebellions and defections of important figures and military units were increasingly brewing within the government and the country. A year later, with the EPLF forces about to swoop down on Addis Ababa to end that charade as well, Menghistu fled abroad with pockets full of money from the national treasury.
These days, the 35th Anniversary of Operation Fenkil is being celebrated in the Homeland and by Eritrean Communities around the world, starting with those in Italy, from Rome to Milan, from Naples to Bari, from Florence to Pisa, from Parma to Bologna, from Catania to Palermo, from Verona to Roseto degli Abruzzi, and we apologize for all those that we may not mention by mistake. To all of them, our Best Wishes for a memorable celebration.
Awet N’Hafash! Power to the Masses!
