Mogadishu Domestic Service radio (in Somali) — 1700 GMT

The Abyssinian red star campaign to exterminate the people of Eritrea and Tigre has suffered great setbacks and major reverses this is the topic of tonight’s commentary by Hasan Farah.

The allied Abyssinian, Russian, Cuban, Libyan and South Yemen forces in Eritrea and Tigre are waging an aggressive offensive aimed at frustrating and halting the just and legitimate struggle for freedom and independence. The aim of the offensive, launched 3 months ago and codenamed red star, is to exterminate the Eritrean people who number more than 3.5 million and it has failed completely. The armed struggle by the liberation forces started 20 years ago.

A spokesman for the Eritrean Peoples Liberation Front (EPLF), in the Eritrean town of Nacfa, yesterday disclosed that the force led and commanded by Mengistu, after suffering great setbacks and heavy losses in the Asmara area and northern [word indistinct), with more than 1,800 officers and men killed and countless weapons captured, have now started to regroup.

In the same area, allied forces are regrouping in a new attempt to capture Nacfa and the surrounding area. Mr ‘Ali Ibrahim, speaking for the Eritrean liberation forces said the Nacfa area is the biggest and most important EPLF-administered area. He added that every new attempt by the Abyssinian regime to capture the Nacfa area suffers serious reverses. In their latest attempt they used nerve gas, napalm bombs and MiG fighters. This is the latest attempt by the black Abyssinian colonialists with the full support of their backers.

A spokesman for the Eritrean liberation forces said the EPLF forces have outmaneuvered the allied forces. At this stage the spokesman added the Abyssinians have begun to concoct lies and make exaggerated claims of successes against the liberation forces. The spokesman went on to say that the Abyssinian regime has now started to scatter leaflets containing lying propaganda and other material to demoralize the masses of Eritrea and disguise the heavy losses the regime is suffering at the hands of the liberation forces.

The gallant fighters of the Eritrean and Tigre liberation forces, who for many years have been waging a just and legitimate war in their country against the black Abyssinian colonialists, have never allowed and will never allow the Abyssinians and their allies to outmaneuver them. The Eritrean and Tigre liberation Forces not only succeed on the battlefront by killing, wounding and capturing officers and men of the black Abyssinian colonial forces, but benefit greatly from the capture of the latest weapons brought to the liberated areas by the Abyssinians and their allies in a desperate attempt to recapture them.

The EPLF radio station hidden deep in the mountainous area of Eritrea, gives up-to-date reports on the situation in the battlefield, thus the Eritrean masses know the great setbacks and heavy losses of the Abyssinians and their allies. At the same time the radio informs the Eritrean masses of the successes of the Eritrean liberation forces.

Challe [Comrade] Ali Ibrahim said that in the same area in the middle of this month they killed 722 soldiers, wounded 465 others and captured 22 officers. He added they also captured large quantities of military hardware and vehicles. Finally, if, as it claims, the Abyssinian regime has the upper hand against the liberation forces in the Horn of Africa, why does it not allow independent press and media journalists into the area to see the truth for themselves about the major reverses it is undergoing daily, or even take them there itself?

 _{FBIS-MEA-82-076, 20 Apr. 1982, pp. R1-R2.}