List of wars involving Eritrea

This is a list of wars involving the State of Eritrea.

Colonial period

• Mahdist War (1881–1899), spilled into Eritrea in 1893–94
• Italo-Ethiopian War (1887–1889)
• First Italo-Ethiopian War (1895–96)
• Italo-Turkish War (1911–12)
• Second Italo-Ethiopian War (1935–36)
• World War II

• East African campaign (1940–41)

Since 1950

Conflict	Combatant 1	Combatant 2	Result	President of Eritrea	Eritrean losses
Eritrean War of Independence (1961–1991)	ELF (1961–1981) Supported by: Sudan[1] Libya[2][3] China (until 1972)[4][5] Cuba (until 1975)[2][6] Syria[7][8] Iraq[9][10] Saudi Arabia[11] Somalia[12][13] EPLF (since 1973) TPLF (since 1975) Supported by: Libya[15][16] Sudan[17] Somalia[12] Syria[7][8] Iraq[17] Kuwait[18] United Arab Emirates[18]	1961–1974 Ethiopian Empire Supported by: United States[19] Israel[20][21] 1974–1991 Derg (1974–1987) PDR Ethiopia (1987–1991) Supported by: Soviet Union[25] (1974–1990) Cuba (1974–1990) South Yemen (1974–1990) Israel[20] North Korea[26]	EPLF victory Eritrean insurgency begins in 1961 ELF defeated by EPLF and TPLF during the Eritrean Civil Wars Fall of the Derg regime Eritrea gains de facto independence from Ethiopia in 1991 under EPLF rule, and de jure independence after the referendum held in 1993 under UN auspices Ethiopia becomes a landlocked country.	None[27]	150,000[28]
First Eritrean Civil War (1972–1974)	ELF	EPLF	Truce ELF and EPLF form an alliance[29]		3,000[30]
Second Eritrean Civil War (1980–1981)	ELF	EPLF TPLF	EPLF victory ELF decisively defeated		?
Hanish Islands Crisis (1995)	Eritrea	Yemen	Victory Eritrean occupation of Greater Hanish	Isaias Afwerki	12[31]
Second Sudanese Civil War (1996–1998)[32]	SPLA Ethiopia Eritrea Uganda	Sudan Janjaweed	Stalemate Eritrean withdrawal in 1998		?
First Congo War (1996–1997)[33]	AFDL Rwanda Uganda[34] Burundi[35] Angola[35] SPLA[36] Eritrea[37] Supported by: South Africa[38] Zambia[39] Zimbabwe[38] Ethiopia[40] Tanzania[41] United States (covertly)[42] Mai-Mai[a]	Zaire FAZ White Legion Sudan[36] Chad[43] Ex-FAR/ALiR Interahamwe CNDD-FDD[44] UNITA[45] ADF[46] FLNC[47] Supported by: France[48][49] Central African Republic[49] China[50] Israel[50] Kuwait (denied)[50] Mai-Mai[a]	Victory Overthrow of the Mobutu regime Zaire renamed back to the Democratic Republic of the Congo Installation of Laurent-Désiré Kabila as president Beginning of Second Congo War		?
Eritrean–Ethiopian War (1998–2000)	Eritrea	Ethiopia	Defeat Algiers Agreement		20,000[54] to 150,000[55]
Djiboutian–Eritrean conflict (2008)	Eritrea	Djibouti	Indecisive Fighting subsided after three days		100[56]
Tigray War (2020–2022)	Ethiopia Eritrea	Tigray OLA (2021–22)[57][58]	Victory Ethiopia–Tigray peace agreement The government and the TPLF formally agreed to a cessation of hostilities and systematic, verifiable disarmament (2 November 2022)[59][60][61] Second agreement for implementing the peace deal signed by both parties (12 November 2022)[62][63] Federal authority in the Tigray Region is reestablished Interim Regional Administration of Tigray formed on 23 March 2023 Continued Eritrean military presence in Tigray as of 2023 Status of Tigray Region's Western Zone still disputed		?

See also

• Second Afar insurgency
• 2013 Eritrean Army mutiny

Notes

1. Many Mai-Mai militias in eastern Zaire initially allied themselves with Rwanda and the AFDL against Hutu militants and refugees.^[51] As soon as most Hutu were driven away, however, many Mai-Mai groups turned against Rwanda and the AFDL.^[52] Despite this, some anti-Hutu Mai-Mai remained allied with Rwanda and the AFDL.^[53]