Ethiopia, a country of ancient origins in eastern Africa, remains a
military powerhouse of that continent until our days. Nowadays involved
in the war in neighboring Somalia, Ethiopia was also involved in half a
dozen of other armed conflicts over the last 60 years.
Crucial between these was the Eritrean War of Independence. Fought
1961-1991, this was one of biggest armed conflicts on the African
continent, especially if measured by numbers of involved combatants. It
included a wide spectrum of operations, from 'classic' counterinsurgency
(COIN) to conventional warfare in mountains - with the latter being one
of the most complex and most demanding undertakings possible to conduct
by a military force.
Campaigns run during the Eritrean War of Independence often included
large formations of relatively well-equipped forces, led by well-trained
commanders, along well-thought-out plans, based on homegrown doctrine.
The air power played a crucial - although not necessarily decisive -
role in many of battles.
Nevertheless, most of details about this conflict remain unknown in the
wider public. Similarly, relatively few Western observers are aware of
relations between the Eritrean liberation movements, and various
dissident and insurgent movements inside Ethiopia - although the synergy
of these eventually led the downfall of the so-called Derg government,
in 1991.
While the first volume in this mini-series spanned the history of wars
between Ethiopia and Eritrea between 1961 and 1988, the second covers
the period since. Correspondingly, it is providing coverage of military
operations that led to the fall of the Derg government in Ethiopia of
1991, the period of Eritrean military buildup and a complete
reorganization of the Ethiopian military in the 1990s, and concludes
with the first detailed account of the so-called Badme War, fought
between Ethiopia and Eritrea in period 1998-2001.
It is illustrated by many contemporary photographs, maps and color
profiles.
