The Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF), colloquially known as Shabia, was an armed Marxist–Leninist organization that fought for the independence of Eritrea from Ethiopia.

After achieving Eritrean independence in 1991, it transformed into the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), which serves as Eritrea's sole legal political party.

In 1967, thirty-three men underwent six months of training in China, including Isaias Afwerki, an engineering student who had left Haile Selassie I University (Addis Ababa University) in 1966 to join the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF), and Romodan Mohammed Nur, who had become commissar of the Fourth Zone after military training in Syria.

[4] Efforts at rectification and unity failed, leading to the emergence of the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) in August 1973, officially known as Shaabia ("popular" in its Arabic abbreviation) in 1977.

Led by Isaias and Ramadan, the EPLF found refuge in the mountains of Sahel, successfully repelling repeated assaults from Nakfa, a garrison town on a high plateau.

Internal dissension within the EPLF, fueled by accusations of authoritarian practices and military shortcomings, was quelled by Isaias, resulting in the execution of eleven members in August 1974.

This program specifically targeted a liberalization of women's rights as well as a broad educational policy for maintaining every language and improving literacy.

The hopes of a nationalist victory raised by the insurgents’ achievements and fear of the Red Terror drove thousands of young men and women to the fronts, principally to the EPLF.

On the other hand, the EPLF was scraping by monetarily and militarily, with most of their funds coming from the Eritrean diaspora and most of their supplies from seizing Ethiopian weapons after battles.

[13] Between February and June 1982, over 80,000 Ethiopian troops launched a series of offensives known as the Red Star Campaign in an attempt to crush the EPLF.

Remarkably, nearly a third of the EPLA's total force and 15 percent of its frontline combat units were women, challenging traditional gender roles.

[15] The EPLF, led by a general staff headed by Sebhat Ephrem after 1987, emphasized decentralization and local initiative during defensive guerrilla tactics.

Subsequently, the movement abandoned most of its formerly Marxist–Leninist ideology,[18][19] in favour of an own revolutionary left-wing concept and a more comprehensive and pragmatic approach to unite all Eritrean nationalists.

It destroyed the most formidable Ethiopian garrison in northern Eritrea and marked a pivotal moment, setting off a chain of events leading to total victory three years later.

[23] The Ethiopian army, caught in a long-simmering crisis and plagued by internal divisions, underestimated the resilience, skill, and adaptability of the rebels.

Even the vengeful bombing, which persisted until the end of March and resulted in the destruction of numerous historic Islamic buildings, could not alter the disastrous outcome.