| Red Star Campaign | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Ethiopian Civil War and Eritrean War of Independence | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 EthiopiaSupported by:  Soviet Union Cuba |
 EPRP EPLF TPLF | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Mengistu Haile Mariam |
Meles Zenawi Isaias Afwerki | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 84,537 regular troops[2] | 22,184 Eritrean guerrillas (including 6,000 Tigrayans) | ||||||
Operation Red Star (Amharic language: ኦፕሬሽን ቀይ ኮከብ?), officially known as the Red Star Multifaceted Revolutionary Campaign (Amharic language: የቀይ ኮከብ ሁለገብ አብዮታዊ ዘመቻ?) was a 1982 Ethiopian army operation during the Ethiopian Civil War aimed at isolating the eliminating opposition forces such as the EPRP and the EPLF from Eritrea. From February to June of 1982, "Operation Red Star," it saw the deployment of more than 100,000 troops. Despite the operation, the government made no significant gains in Eritrea.[3]
Timeline[]
The campaign was announced by the government on 25 January 1981 and was official launched on 16 February. By March, thousands of Ethiopian troops were forced to retreat along the northeastern sea coast to the Sudanese border. In addition, an Ethiopian division was reportedly trapped 15 miles inside Sudan.[4]
Societal aspect of Red Star[]
Outside of its operational purpose, it was also designed to rally provincial society economically, politically and culturally. The motto became "Military victory first and then civic action" and even Colonel Mengistu moved the entire Derg to Asmara, the Eritrean capital, to be able to showcase the development campaign for the area.[5] The government cared to rally Eritrean society around the military and the ruling junta.[6]
As a result of poor performance in Red Star, the following August saw a new operation, titled "Red Star II", keep a much lower profile than the original.[7]
See also[]
References[]
- ↑ "Opinion | ETHIOPIAN CONFLICTS: ALL IS NOT QUIET IN THE 'NORTHERN COMMAND'". July 6, 1983. https://www.nytimes.com/1983/07/06/opinion/l-ethiopian-conflicts-all-is-not-quiet-in-the-northern-command-016257.html.
- ↑ Waal, Alex de (August 16, 2009). "Recalling Ethiopia's Wars: The Rage of Numbers". https://africanarguments.org/2009/08/the-rage-of-numbers-recalling-ethiopias-wars/.
- ↑ Ellison, Katherine (1984-03-04). "Eritrean Offensive Ends Stalemate in 22-Year War" (in en-US). Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1984/03/04/eritrean-offensive-ends-stalemate-in-22-year-war/07f3bfa9-8bc2-4dbe-b0c0-55b89f46d70a/.
- ↑ Ufheil-Somers, Amanda (1982-06-15). "Dispatches: The War in Eritrea" (in en-US). https://merip.org/1982/06/dispatches-the-war-in-eritrea/.
- ↑ "'Operation Red Star': Soviet Union, Libya back Ethiopia in Eritrean war - UPI Archives" (in en). https://www.upi.com/Archives/1982/03/20/Operation-Red-Star-Soviet-Union-Libya-back-Ethiopia-in-Eritrean-war/8117385448400/.
- ↑ Tareke, Gebru (2002). "From Lash to Red Star: The Pitfalls of Counter-Insurgency in Ethiopia, 1980-82". pp. 465–498. ISSN 0022-278X. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3876045.
- ↑ "Quietly, Ethiopians mount drive to oust Eritrean secessionists". Christian Science Monitor. ISSN 0882-7729. https://www.csmonitor.com/1983/0818/081859.html.
The original article can be found at Operation Red Star and the edit history here.