Romodan Mohammed Nur was an Eritrean politician who was the first chairman of the

Eritrean People's Liberation Front 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. It emerged in 1970 as a far-left to left-wing nationalist group ...

and a key figure during the

Eritrean War of Independence The Eritrean War of Independence was a war for independence which Eritrean independence fighters waged against successive Ethiopian governments from 1 September 1961 to 24 May 1991. Eritrea was an Italian colony from the 1880s until the d ...

Early and personal life

Romodan was born in Hirghigo in 1941 to a Tigre speaking merchant family. He attended Kekiya School, and in 1957 went to Cairo for secondary school.

Rebel fighter

In 1961 he joined the ELF, and in 1963 Romodan went to receive military training in Syria. He rose to become political commissar of Zone 4 in 1965, and was one of the original group of five sent for training in China in 1967. In 1970, Romodan was among the founders of the People's Liberation Forces (PLF) at Sudoha Ila, and in 1971 he was elected to lead the PLF, after which he developed close links to the Ala group led by his colleague, Isaias. Together with Isaias and others, Romodan created the nucleus of what was to become the EPLF within the Eritrean Liberation Forces – People's Liberation Forces (ELF-PLF). At the EPLF's First Congress in 1977, he was elected secretary general – a position he held until 1987, when he became vice secretary-general, with Isaias's assumption of public leadership.

Later life

In 1994, Romodan suddenly resigned as vice secretary general of the EPLF possibly due to pressure from

Isaias Afwerki Isaias Afwerki ( ti, ኢሳይያስ ኣፍወርቂ, ; born 2 February 1946) is an Eritrean politician and partisan who has been the president of Eritrea since shortly after he led the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) to victory in ...

. He then lived a quiet civilian life and died on December 30, 2021.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Romodan Mohammed Nur 1941 births 2021 deaths Eritrean politicians People from Northern Red Sea Region