Dissidents included Christians who resented an alleged Islamic bias in the ELF, inhabitants of the coast with regionalist concerns, and radical Marxists.

The ELF failed to suppress the dissident groups, who ultimately united themselves into the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF).

Integration of Christian fighters under Muslim commanders did not go well and the regional emphasis of the ELF caused friction between the old guard and the new radical students.

[6] There were around 3,000 casualties from this civil war, more than the Eritreans had lost fighting the government for thirteen years up to this point.

[7] The Second Civil War[4] was executed by the EPLF against the ELF in a bid to protect the flanks of the Front under tremendous pressure from a resurgent Ethiopia.

By this point the ELF had been drained during the Ethiopian resurgence after Soviet assistance was leveraged, and were eventually defeated by the EPLF forces in 1981.