The Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF) commemorated the 117th National Defense Day on October 25, 2024 in Addis Ababa with various events that demonstrate the occasion, FBC reported.
The event was attended by the FDRE President, Taye Atske-Selassie, the Chief of Staff of the National Defense Forces, Field Marshal Berhanu Jula, Minister of Defense, Aisha Mohamed, ENDF senior officials, members of the defense forces, elders, veterans, former members of the armed forces, members of the Federal Police, families of the armed forces, and invited guests.
The event marked the 117th anniversary of the establishment of the modern Ethiopian army and to honor the sacrifices of security forces for the nation’s sovereignty.
Though its foundation dates back 117 years, the army was modernized under the regency of Teferi Mekonnen. The army that defeated the Italian invaders at the battle of Adwa in 1896 was totally traditional. The then army was led by regional kings and lords while the commander in chief was emperor Minelik II.
Forty years later, when the army marched to Maichew to defend the country from fascists in a similar way, it was somehow organized under ministerial governance. However, most of the soldiers were bare footed and with no uniform and modern communication equipment.
In 1935, the first military training center was established by the support of the Sweden government at Holeta town 40 kilo meters west of the capital. Right after the graduation of the first contemporarily trained army, the fascists entered to the capital in 1936 as they invaded the country for the second time. Sooner, the army members joined the patriots by establishing the black lion liberation army.
After the defeat of fascists in 1941, emperor Hilasilasie I came back from exile and reorganized the army in a better way. This time, various army divisions were established and the air force was also reinvigorated. Modern uniforms, shoes and ranking levels had been introduced similar to the western armies and for the first time, salaried soldiers began to be recruited.
The army obtained logistics and weaponry support first from the British and later from the United States governments. Later, occupational divisions were deployed in various parts of the country including various parts of the country’s provinces of that time such as Ogaden, Gonder, Bale and Sidamo to keep the nation’s security from foreign intruders came from neighboring countries.
Army officers also were sent to USA and Britain for training and education programs. That time, the country was free of conflict and taking this as a good opportunity, the army members took various trainings consecutively and equipped with modern weapons. Infantry, motorized, mechanized, artillery and tanks’ brigades were established.
The first place that the Ethiopian army dispatched to foreign territories was Korean peninsula for peace keeping mission in 1953. That time, because of the ideological difference, Koreans were subdued in civil war. The Socialist in the north backed by the former Soviet Union waged war against the government in Seoul. The United Nations, to halt the conflict between the socialists and non socialists, dispatched peace keeping troops in the Korean Peninsula from 16 countries that included Ethiopia.
According to historians, the Ethiopian troops drawn from three successive battalions from the 1st Division, Imperial Bodyguard between June 1951 and April 1954 participated in 253 battle fields; 122 men were killed in action and 536 men were wounded in action but no one was reported as captive.
The Greek war correspondent Kimon Skordiles covered the first armed clash of the Cold War – the Korean War of 1950- 1953. He wrote about a group of Ethiopian soldiers he previously knew nothing about. As to him, they were volunteers recruited from Ethiopia’s elite Imperial Bodyguard known as the Kagnew Battalion. They were part of the 1.94 million troops from 16 nations who participated in the Korean War and 21 nations under the United Nations’ (UN) flag who pledged support by sending combat and medical troops, and provided South Korea postwar reconstruction aid.
According to the Story of Ethiopian Fighters in Korea, the Ethiopians won their battles against North Korean forces in the vicinity of Ch’orwon, Kumhwa, and Mundungni. None of the 6,037 Ethiopians went missing or became prisoner of war.
The Ethiopian army for the second time was dispatched to Congo Democratic Republic after civil war broke out following the overthrow of the then Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba. Ethiopia contributed troops for the United Nations operation in the Congo from July 1960 t0 1962. By 20 July 1960, 3,500 troops for ONUC had arrived in the Congo. Ethiopian Emperor Haileselassie raised some 3,000 Imperial Bodyguard personnel- about 10% of the Ethiopian army’s entire number at that time-and made it part of the UN peacekeeping force in the Congo, along with an air force squadron. The volunteer battalion from the Imperial Bodyguard was commanded by the Emperor.
Both in the Korean and in DRC missions the Ethiopian army enhanced its pride and testified its brave combating skill to the world and the United Nations recognized its achievements.
In 1974 when the Ethiopian revolution broke out in the earlier time, the central role was played by civilians in a disorganized manner. Later, the army which was well organized and armed involved in the revolution under the leadership of Derg; arrested the imperial regime’s Ministers and officials and ultimately it had been instrumental to dethrone the old imperial regime led by emperor Hailasilasie I.
As a dictator regime, Derg dragged the nation in to protracted civil war and after 17 years of harsh rule, it was overthrown by the EPRDF regime. In the Derg era, no combatant troops were dispatched outside Ethiopia. The army spent its time and energy in the civil war in the northern part of Ethiopia which lasted for thirty years.
Two years later after TPLF led EPRDF assumed power in 1993, the Ethiopian army was dispatched to Rwanda under the United Nation Peace Keeping Mission following the genocide took place in that country to stabilize and bring peace there. The Rwandan genocide, also known as the genocide against the Tutsi, occurred from 7 April to 19 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. Over a span of around 100 days, some 800,000 of the Tutsi ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, were systematically killed by Hutu militias.
The arrival of Ethiopian army saved the nation from further atrocities. The army stayed there for years and after peace was restored, trial was conducted and put the culprits in to accountable for their crime. The army accomplished its mission and left Rwanda. The mission accomplishment again raises the Ethiopian army pride and reputation. It also boosted the country’s vitality in ensuring peace and security in the continent.
The United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) was established by the Security Council’s resolution 1509 (2003) of 19 September 2003 to support the implementation of the ceasefire agreement and the peace process; protect United Nations staff, facilities and civilians; support humanitarian and human rights activities and the Ethiopian Army was one of the peace keeping force.
In the late 2003, conflict was occurred among political rivals in Liberia and civilian causalities were mounting and the Ethiopian government engaged in the peace keeping mission there. With the coordination with other countries, the armed forces stayed there for five years and left after fulfilling its mission by stabilizing the country.
In the early 2003, when civil war broke out in Sudan Darfur, civilians became victims of the conflict. Under the UN peace keeping mission, the Ethiopian army was dispatched there and still stationed there and continued its peace keeping mission and pay sacrifice for the wellbeing of the Sudan’s people. Ethiopia is the largest contributor to the UN peace keeping mission with over 8300 uniformed personnel, the vast majority of them served in Darfur, Abiye and South Sudan.
In January 2011, southern Sudan voted for independence through a referendum. After few years, boarder conflict broke out between the two countries in the place known as Abiye. Under the UN auspicious, the Ethiopian army deployed there for peace keeping mission and still now it continued its mission there.
Ethiopia is located in the Horn of Africa, flanked by the Red Sea and Indian Ocean and the region is one of the politically volatile. After the down fall of the Somalia’s Siad Barre regime in 1991, Somalia had been the breeding ground for terrorist organizations. Ethiopia shares more than 1500 kilo meter border with Somalia and this left it vulnerable to the incursion of terrorists across its borders. In 1990s the terrorist group known as Al-Itihad Al-Islamiya in various occasion made cross border clash with Ethiopia but it was repeatedly bitten by the Ethiopian defense forces.
As it is known, the down fall of the Siad Bare regime created power vacuum in Somalia and the country had been under the rule of warlords from various clans with continuous civil war. Taking this anarchical situation as good opportunity, the most notorious terrorist organization known as Alshabaab was established in 2007 backed by the Middle East terrorist organizations and announced that it had an objective to annex territories where Somali speaking population inhabited in the Horn of Africa including Ethiopia. To response to the Alshabaab’s threat, the Ethiopian army took preemptive measure and deployed inside Somalia.
Currently, the Ethiopian army actively engaged in AMISOM mission. The African Union Mission in Somalia is an active, regional peacekeeping mission operated by the African Union with the approval of the United Nations. It was created by the African Union’s Peace and Security Council on 19th January, 2007 with an initial six month mandate.
AMISOM replaced and subsumed the Inter- Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Peace Support Mission to Somalia or IGASOM, which was a proposed Inter- Governmental Authority on Development protection and training mission in Somalia approved by the African Union in September 2006. IGASOM was also approved by the United Nations Security Council.
In sum, the Ethiopian army engagement in peace keeping missions in various parts of the world indicates how Ethiopia is committed for the prevailing of peace and active participant in the UN peace keeping mission.
Editor’s Note: The views entertained in this article do not necessarily reflect the stance of The Ethiopian Herald
BY ABEBE WOLDEGIORGIS
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SATURDAY 2 NOVEMBER 2024
