Derg army halted
Socialist Press1978 1978-09-06Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 2 →
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The forces of the Liberation Front are still succeeding in their defence of the city of Keren against the attacks launched by the armies of the Derg and its Cuban backers.
This setback 'for the Ethiopian. military dictatorship has severely disrupted Ineir strategy. Strained by wars on several fronts, working class agitation in Addis Ababa and the rumblings of mutiny in the conscript peasant armies, the Derg is in no position to withstand delays in the plans it has made with the acquiescencehowever reluctant-of the Soviet and Cuban bureaucracies.
Already the EPLF has been able to move back into areas recently evacuated before the Ethiopian advance, and now the invading army is also subject to constant attacks on its flanks in its midst.
At the same time a new plague has descended on the Horn of Africa. Vast swarms of locusts are eating their way across Ethiopia and have already caused famine in the northern areas bordering Eritrea.
Colonel Mengistu must be remembering uneasily how previous famines were a major cause of the popular uprising that overthrew Haile Selassie and brought its own executionKenyatta and military chiefs watch a ceremonial fly-past