Eritrean Liberation Front

The Eritrean Liberation Front was the main secessionist movement in Eritrea which sought Eritrea's independence from Ethiopia during the 1960s and 1970s. It was founded in the early 1960s and soon came into violent conflict with the government, using guerrilla war tactics to continue the struggle. Though the movement posed great problems for the Ethiopian government, it failed to achieve independence for Eritrea. In the 1970s, a group of its members split the movement and formed the Eritrean People's Liberation Front, a more left-wing rebel movement. By the 1980s, the People's Liberation Front had replaced the original Eritrean Liberation Front as the main rebel group. When Eritrea did gain independence in the early 1990s, the People's Liberation Front changed into the People's Front for Democracy and Justice with the addition of former ELF members while the balance became a small rebel group in the nether reaches of the Sudan. The ELF had a meeting in 1995 in Gondar, Ethiopia which has shown the differences of view between the founders of ELF (Ahmed Mohammed Nasser,Hiruy Tadla Bayru)and the new leaders (Siyoum Ogbamichael,Hussein Kelifah and Weldeyesus Ammar).

The contemporary ELF is a member of the umbrella opposition alliance in Eritrea, the Eritrean National Alliance. [cite web|title=An Interview With Dr. Yohannes Zeremariam|url=http://www.awate.com/artman/publish/article_2538.shtml|accessdate=2006-09-15] They are apparently now receiving military support from Ethiopia and from the interim government of Somalia based at Baidoa. [cite web|title=Ethiopia troops head for Baidoa|publisher=BBC|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5268868.stm|accessdate=2006-09-15]

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