Isaias Afewerki (Tigrinya: ኢሳይያስ ኣፈወርቂ) (born February 2, 1946 in Asmara, Eritrea) is the first president of Eritrea, a position he has held since 1993. He led the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) to victory in May 1991, thus ending the 30-year old armed liberation struggle that the Eritrean people refer to as "Gedli". Two years later, he became President following an independence referendum. He is the head of the ruling People's Front f...
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Isaias Afewerki (Tigrinya: ኢሳይያስ ኣፈወርቂ) (born February 2, 1946 in Asmara, Eritrea) is the first president of Eritrea, a position he has held since 1993. He led the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) to victory in May 1991, thus ending the 30-year old armed liberation struggle that the Eritrean people refer to as "Gedli". Two years later, he became President following an independence referendum. He is the head of the ruling People's Front for Democracy and Justice.
Isaias was born in the Eritrean capital Asmara (then the second largest city in Ethiopia), to a father from the village of Tselot, located in the formerly Hamasien province of Eritrea.
The EPLF was one of many armed groups struggling against the dictator, Mengistu Hailemariam. Afewerki was elected Leader of the EPLF in 1975. He has been the chairperson of both the EPLF and the PFDJ since the PFDJ assumed power at the end of the Eritrean War for Independence and the Ethiopian Civil War in 1991. He has been President of...
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