Paulos Tesfagiorgis

Paulos Tesfagiorgis was the head of the Eritrean Relief Association (ERA) and one of the senior cadres of the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) from the 1970s till the liberation of the country in 1991. While EPLF liberated Eritrea, opposition forces in Ethiopia under the leadership of the Tigray People’s Liberation front (TPLF) and its coalition partners, also succeeded in establishing a new government in Addis Ababa. The hope then was that both Ethiopia and Eritrea would be rebuilding in cooperation. But it turned otherwise. Under the leader of the EPLF and new president Isaias Afwerki, Eritrea escalated a boarder skirmish to an all-out war which caused lots of destruction and animosity for another two decades. Paulos, as many of his former comrades were forced into exile while many senior EPLF and government cadres were detained and disappeared, their whereabouts till unknown.

Ethiopia: The Perils of War