Written: April 12, 1977
Published: 1977
Source: PMAC Chairman Comrade Lt. Col. Mengistu Haile-Mariam's Address to the Nation on the Acts of Aggression Committed Against Ethiopia Through Foreign Intervention, Ministry of Information and National Guidance (Addis Ababa), 1977
Digitalisation: New York Public Library
Proof-reading: Vishnu Bachani
HTML: Vishnu Bachani
The broad masses of Ethiopia;
The longstanding honour and integrity of Ethiopia have been violated.
The anti-people and anti-revolutionary attack and plot being perpetrated for the last two years by neighbouring reactionary ruling classes in collaboration with international imperialism has been strengthened more than ever and aggravated to the stage of interference in the internal affairs and armed intervention in Ethiopia. They are doing so by using as an instrument your confirmed class enemies, the EDU[1], EPRP[2] and the secessionist anti-people organizations in Eritrea which since the eruption of your revolution in February 1974 have been trying to subvert your revolution, disrupt the unity that you have preserved with your blood and restore the old regime that had exploited and oppressed you.
Not only by arming but also by providing artillery and tank fire support for the anti-people feudalistic riffraff party calling itself EDU, a remnant of the feudo-bourgeois regime which was obliterated by your revolution, the dictatorial ruler of the Sudan, El Nimeiri, is now openly violating the honour and entity of Ethiopia. The imperialists are coordinating this aggression which the Sudanese dictator has launched in collaboration with neighbouring reactionary Arab governments.
As a result, an aggression supported by foreign forces is being carried out in the northern and western Ethiopia in the towns of Tessenei, Om Hager, Nacfa, Afabet, Setit-Humera, Abderafi and Metema.
The fight to capture Metema and Tessenei with the fire support of Sudanese artillery and tanks and to carve out and take our northern region is being intensified.
The inviolable territorial integrity and unassailable unity of our revolutionary motherland is being violated at this hour by foreign armed intervention.
The intervention and violation perpetrated against our revolution, our unity and our national entity in general has reached a stage of very serious concern. We have brought to the attention of member states of the Organization of African Unity through the organization as well as to the peace loving countries of the world that the Sudanese government bears responsibility for the ensuing trouble and endangering of peace in the surrounding area due to the invasion launched by tyrant Nimeiri—an instrument of reactionary ruling Arab classes and imperialism—without the participation, belief and desire of the Sudanese people.
Gaafar El Nimeiri, not only did he betray the trust and faith of the Ethiopian people and government who genuinely sought his good offices, with a feeling of friendship and good neighbourliness, to help assist in solving the problem of our Eritrea region, but also became collaborator and instigator of the criminal acts being perpetrated against the unity and revolution of Ethiopia by the Eritrean secessionist reactionary groups. Over and above supporting and arming secretly these anti-people organizations, he is now deploying Sudanese army supported with artillery and tanks along with the Eritrean runaways and EDU and attacking oppressed Ethiopian peasants and men-in-uniform.
El Nimeiri not only knows that the brotherly oppressed broad masses of the Sudan do not support and believe in his aggression against the Ethiopian people, but also has no faith in his own people, the broad masses of the Sudan.
It is to be recalled that he had earlier signed a mutual defence agreement with the Egyptian leader in order to strengthen his hand for his anti-people and anti-revolutionary aggression against Ethiopia.
It has been clear all along to the Ethiopian people and to the Sudanese people themselves as to why this mutual defence agreement was signed and against whom it was directed.
As we have come to realize, this astonishing and ridiculous agreement between two individuals is aimed at bringing about their anti-people and anti-revolutionary twin objectives:
1. To attack democratic forces fighting for the freedom and equality of the people as well as the Sudanese armed forces aligned with the broad masses, in fear of the bitter contradictions prevailing between the broad masses of the Sudan and the imperialist toy and fascist El Nimeiri.
2. To disrupt lhe unity of Ethiopia and attack the young Ethiopian Revolution, which has obliterated Ethiopia’s fascistic ruling classes and which continues to expose reactionary remnants and burn them in revolutionary flame. The signatories of the agreement were seriously worried about the impact of the shining example of the Ethiopian Revolution in the surrounding area. They seek to impose on the oppressed people of Ethiopia their type of imperialist-instrument government. It is an international plot orchestrated with the invasion they are presently conducting based on their class interest.
Therefore, it is evident that El Nimeiri is emboldened by this agreement and the concentration and reinforcement of Sudanese and Egyptian troops along the Ethio-Sudanese border to provide artillery and tank support to EDU and ELF bandits to violate the honour, unity and integrity of Ethiopia and her revolution as well as to arrogantly interfere in Ethiopia’s internal affairs and to launch an armed intervention.
El Nimeiri had earlier dubiously launched a major propaganda campaign against the revolution and unity of Ethiopia to cover up his interference and aggression. He has invited the reactionary and antipeople Eritrean secessionist organization and the EDU and enabled them to disseminate anti-people and anti-revolutionary propaganda over Omdurman radio station.
As I pointed out earlier, the objective and design of international imperialists, reactionary forces of the neighbouring region and El Nimeiri is to sever Eritrea from its revolutionary motherland and thereby stifle our national existence and bring the Red Sea under their control. The conspiracy which they have all this time been contriving to subvert and reverse our revolution and jeopardise our unity with a view to achieving their aims has today traversed to total audacity and aggression.
Having realised that if the Ethiopian revolution gets three more months of life at its present depth, decisiveness and speed it will reach a stage wherefrom it will be impossible to reverse it, El Nimeiri has openly and arrogantly declared that reactionary forces of the surrounding region and imperialists have agreed to dismantle the unity of Ethiopia and reverse the revolution within the next three months with all their combined force.
The broad masses of Ethiopia:
What more can this marionette of an individual say or do?
What greater confrontation and attack can befall a proud people who have lived with respect and dignity by repulsing with shame the aggression attempts directed against them by varying colonialists and imperialists from down the ages?
Our borders and frontiers which have at all times been respected, honoured and safeguarded by our patriotic fathers and mothers must not be violated today while they are in the custody of this new revolutionary generation.
Our proud history which has for many thousands of years won us respect and dignity must not be defiled at the time of this revolutionary new generation.
Ethiopia has time and again explained that it is, in former days or today, a country that neither desires to transgress on the interests and rights of its neighbours nor allow an iota of its own to be violated. She has attested to this by practical deeds. It is this same conviction that the foreign policy of the Programme of the Ethiopian National Democratic Revolution accurately reflects.
With regard to our close neighbour the Sudan in particular, we have been pursuing a painstakingly patient and peace-loving diplomacy so that the brotherhood of the oppressed peoples of the two countries and their long-standing good neighbourliness may not be poisoned—and all this, while the Ethiopian people are being assailed, wounded and killed. El Nimeiri and his accomplices have, however, misinterpreted this for fear and weakness.
Henceforth, the broad masses of the Ethiopian people will no longer view with patience the aggression directed against their unity and revolution.
Oppressed workers of Ethiopia:
Oppressed peasants of Ethiopia:
Genuine progressive forces of Ethiopia:
Nationalist Ethiopian men and women:
The broad masses of Ethiopia in general:
Now is the time for you to gird yourselves to march alongside the men-in-uniform and crush the interference and aggression which has now been launched with a view to violating your honour and freedom, dismember your country and to reverse your fledgling revolution which has liberated you from the yoke of oppression and exploitation.
As details of the violations inflicted upon the country in general will be made known and an emergency call of the motherland will be addressed to you within a short period of time, wait in readiness for this proud, extremely necessary and historical sacrifice.
Over and above protecting and safeguarding our own independence, rights, frontiers and revolution, we have not attempted to interfere in the internal affairs of another country and violate its frontier. Nor shall we ever do so.
What we call for is the eradication of racism, colonialism, and discrimination based on religion and sex.
We stand for the demolition of oppression and exploitation.
We advocate the fullest possible reign in the world of total freedom and independence, complete equality, justice and absolute democratic rights.
All the oppressed peoples, workers, progressives and democratic forces of the entire world who stand and struggle for this truth and this righteous goal will array themselves on our side. This being so, we will triumph. Get armed.
— Down with imperialism, feudalism and bureaucratic-capitalism,
— Down with the hired assassins of imperialism, EDU and EPRP;
— Down with Eritrean secessionist reactionary bandits who have sold the independence, honour and existence of their motherland for petro-dollar;
May the unity and internationalism of the workers and progressive forces of the world be stronger than steel and live forever;
The broad masses will triumph.
[1] Ethiopian Democratic Union (የኢትዮጵያ ዴሞክራሲያዊ ህብረት).
[2] Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party (የኢትዮጵያ ሕዝባዊ አብዮታዊ ፓርቲ)
[3] The spelling used in the original document is Mengistu Haile-Mariam, though the internationally accepted Romanization is Mengistu Haile Mariam.
[4] Given that the original scan is available, minor typos have been corrected without using [sic].