The siege of Barentu took place in 1977 in and around the town of Barentu in western

Eritrea Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia ...

. It was jointly laid to siege by the

Eritrean Liberation Front ar, جبهة التحرير الإريترية it, Fronte di Liberazione Eritreo , war = the Ethiopian Civil War, Eritrean War of Independence and the Eritrean Civil Wars , image = , caption = Flag of the ELF ...

(ELF) and 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 ...

(EPLF) against the forces of

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

. This was a decisive battle 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 ...

and marked the beginning of

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

involvement in the conflict.

The battle

The town of Barentu was defended by a large garrison of Ethiopian troops. The garrison had constructed numerous fortifications to improve the defensibility of the town. Furthermore, a local Kunama militia had been raised to support the Ethiopian troops. Of most significance in this battle however, was the decision by Soviet military advisers to commit to direct involvement. During the siege of Barentu, the Soviet planners used their air superiority to their advantage by using close air support. This close air support inflicted heavy casualties on the forces of the ELF and EPLF who were conducting their first major joint operation. The failure of this joint operation would have significant consequences later in the war of independence. According to reports, fighting between the ELF and EPLF also happened, and caused around 400 casualties. The failure of the siege and the heavy losses incurred by both the ELF and EPLF forces in this battle, as well as the failure at the Battle of Massawa, led to the strategic withdrawal of rebel forces.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barentu 1978 in Eritrea 1978 in Ethiopia Eritrean War of Independence Battles of the Ethiopian Civil War Conflicts in 1978 Ethiopia–Soviet Union relations