The Ethiopian Army (Amharic: የኢትዮጵያ ሰራዊት, romanized: Ye-Ītyōṗṗyā serawīt) is the land service branch of the Ethiopian National Defense Force. It is the senior of the two uniformed military branches.
Ethiopia's military history is rich and deeply rooted in the country's long and storied past. Due to Ethiopia's location between the Middle East and Africa, it has long been in the middle of Eastern and Western politics and has been subject to foreign invasion and aggression.
Following the order of the emperor of Ethiopia, Nikolay Leontiev directly organized the first battalion of the regular Ethiopian army in February 1899. Leontiev formed the first regular battalion, the kernel of which became the company of volunteers from the former Senegal shooters, which he chose and invited from Western Africa, with the training of the Russian and French officers.
The Battle of Adwa is the best-known victory of Ethiopian forces over foreign invaders. It maintained Ethiopia's existence as an independent state. Fought on 1 March 1896 against the Kingdom of Italy near the town of Adwa, it was the decisive battle of the First Italo-Ethiopian War.
During the Scramble for Africa, Ethiopia remained the only nation that had not been colonized by European colonial powers, due in part to their defeat of Italy in the First Italo-Ethiopian War. However, with Ethiopia surrounded by European colonies, the necessity of ensuring that the Ethiopian army was well-maintained became apparent to the Ethiopian government.
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In obedience to the agreement with Russia and the order of Menelik II, First Ethiopian officers began to be trained at the First Russian cadet school in 1901.
Under the regency of Tafari Mekonnen, the army was modernized. He created an Imperial Bodyguard, the Kebur Zabagna, in 1917 from the earlier Mahal Safari who had traditionally attended the Ethiopian Emperor. Its elite was trained at the French Saint-Cyr military academy or by Belgian military advisers. However, these efforts were not sufficient nor instituted in enough time to stop the rising tide of Italian fascism.
Ethiopia was invaded and occupied by Italy during the Italian invasion of Ethiopia of 1935-36, marked for Ethiopia's first time being occupied by a foreign power. Ethiopia's patriots managed to resist and defeat the fascist Italian force after the 1941 East African Campaign of World War II with the help of British, South African and Nigerian forces. This made Ethiopia the only country in Africa that has never been colonized.
Ethiopia bought twenty AH-IV tankettes from Czechoslovakia in the late 1940s. They were based on the Romanian R-1 variant and arrived in Djibouti on 9 May 1950 after which they were carried by rail to Addis Ababa.
In keeping with the principle of collective security, for which Haile Selassie was an outspoken proponent, Ethiopia sent a contingent under General Mulugeta Buli, known as the Kagnew Battalion, to take part in the Korean War.
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On 25 September 1953, Selassie created the Imperial Ministry of National Defense that unified the Army, Air Force, and Navy.
Ethiopia contributed troops for the United Nations operation in the Congo - the United Nations Operation in the Congo - from July 1960.
Aman Mikael Andom commanded the Third Division during the 1964 Ethiopian-Somali Border War.
The Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces, Police, and Territorial Army, or the Derg (Amharic "Committee"), was officially announced 28 June 1974 by a group of military officers to maintain law and order due to the powerlessness of the civilian government following widespread mutiny in the armed forces of Ethiopia earlier that year.
When the Derg gained control of Ethiopia, they lessened their reliance on the West. Instead, they began to draw their equipment and their sources for organizational and training methods from the Soviet Union and other Comecon countries, especially Cuba.
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The Ethiopian army grew considerably under the Derg (1974-1987), and the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia under Mengistu (1987-1991), especially during the latter regime.
In April 1988 the Derg reorganized the army. The restoration of relations with Somalia meant that forces could be transferred from the First Revolutionary Army in the Ogaden, to the Second and Third Revolutionary Armies, the Third (TRA) being responsible for the provinces of Assab, Tigray, Wello, Gondar, and Gojjam. The very small Fourth Revolutionary Army became responsible for protecting the border with Kenya and those with Somalia and Sudan.
In May 1988 the Derg decided that before it could concentrate on destroying the EPLF, it would have to first eliminate the TPLF.
Forces underarms were estimated at 230,000 in early 1991. Mengistu's People's Militia had also grown to about 200,000 members.
In 1991 Mengistu's government was overcome by the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ, former EPLF), Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and other opposition factions.
After the defeat of the military government, the provisional government disbanded the former national army and relied on its own guerrilla fighters.
In 1993, however, the Tigrayan-led government announced plans to create a multi-ethnic defense force. This process entailed the creation of a new professional army and officer class and the demobilization of many of the irregulars who had fought against the military government.
The former allies EPRDF and PFDJ (former EPLF) led their countries Ethiopia and Eritrea, respectively, into the Eritrean-Ethiopian War of 1998. The war was fought over the disputed region of Badme.
During the course of the war, some commanders and pilots from the former army and air force were recalled to duty. These officers helped turn the tide decisively against Eritrea in 2000.
Following the war's end, the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission, a body founded by the UN, established that the Badme region had in fact belonged to Eritrea.
Approximately 50,000 to 60,000 ENDF troops backed by tanks, helicopter gunships and jets were involved in the military offensive against the Islamic Courts Union during December 2006.
On 8 November 2020, ENDF troops backed by militias from the Amhara and the Eritrean Defence Forces regions were deployed to the Tigray Region in response to a coordinated 'preemptive strike' by TPLF against the Northern Command of ENDF.
Modern Equipment and Acquisitions
The modern ENDF has a wide mix of equipment. Many of its major weapons systems stem from the Communist era and are of Soviet and Eastern bloc design.
Ethiopia made significant purchases of arms from Russia in late 1999 and early 2000 before the May 2000 United Nations arms embargo went into effect. It is likely that much of that equipment suffered battle damage in the war with Eritrea.
Looking to greatly expand on its military offensive capabilities and give it a decisive edge over its long-time enemy of Eritrea, and to establish a deterrent to Sudan and Egypt, Ethiopia embarked on an ambitious re-equipment programme in the 2010s that sought to alter the military balance in the region in Ethiopia’s favour.
At the centre of this re-armament initiative was the acquisition of short-range ballistic missiles and long-range (guided) rockets capabilities, these two were never fielded in Ethiopia before.
Considering the close military relationship between Ethiopia and China, it is little surprising that Ethiopia looked to China for the acquisition of such capabilities. In addition to being one of the few countries willing to supply such technology to Ethiopia, China also produces two systems that combine SRBMs and guided rockets into one modular system.
The M20 SRBM is currently the most modern ballistic missile to have entered service in the African continent. It carries a 400kg HE warhead to a range of at least 280km, making it ideally suited for targeting enemy bases and troop concentrations. Incorporating not only inertial, but also BeiDou satellite guidance, the M20 also boasts a Circular Error Probable (CEP) estimated at some 30 metres.
M20 Short-Range Ballistic Missile.
The A200 is one of the latest Chinese artillery rocket systems, thee launcher vehicle carries 2 pods with four 300 mm rockets each. Each rocket is 7.26 m long and weights 750 kg. The rockets have a maximum range of 200 km. Minimum range is 50 km. Rockets have inertial guidance with satellite navigation update. CEP is around 30 meters. So these rockets are very accurate even at maximum range
Multiple rocket launchers are capable of laying down extremely lethal barrages in quick succession, while larger rockets can strike targets deeper behind the frontline. The ten-rocket A200 has a range of seventy-five miles, while twelve-rocket AR2 (export model of the Chinese military Type 03 system) has a range of eighty-one miles. The rockets can carry regular high-explosive warheads or highly lethal fuel-air explosive or cluster bomblets and also come in precision-strike variants guided by Beidou satellite navigation.
The A200 launcher can alternately mount two M20 ballistic missiles, an export model of China’s mobile DF-12 SRBM. The M20 officially boasts a range of up to 174 miles, and can deploy countermeasures and maneuver to avoid interception by air defenses, and a combination of satellite and inertial guidance results in an average accuracy of 30 meters.
Ethiopia acquired extended-range Chinese-made half a dozen PHL-03 300 mm MRLS, A-200 guided rocket artillery (GRA) systems and M-20 short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs) each. Such weapons have a range of between 150km (93 miles) and 300km (186 miles).
As regional tension persists, and to further build in these capabilities, the Ethiopian government acquired dozens of Chinese SH-15 (PCL-181) artillery.
The Ethiopian Army continues to reinforce it’s capabilities to be better prepared for the next conflict, likely with Egypt or Sudan.
The PCL-181 is a Chinese truck-mounted,155 mm self-propelled howitzer used by the People’s Liberation Army Ground Force.
This artillery system is highly mobile and can self-deploy over long distances, and is capable of direct and indirect firing.
PCL-181 155mm self-propelled howitzer.
Ethiopia Air Defense System 2025 | Modern Military Power in Africa
Peacekeeping Missions
Ethiopia has served in various United Nations and African Union peacekeeping missions. Two major previous Ethiopian missions were in Liberia and Darfur.
The United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) was established by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1509, of 19 September 2003, to support the implementation of the ceasefire agreement and the peace process, protect United Nations staff, facilities and civilians, support humanitarian and human rights activities; as well as assist in national security reform, including national police training and formation of a new, restructured military.
In November 2007, nearly 1,800 Ethiopian troops serving with the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) were presented with UN service medals for their "invaluable contribution to the peace process."
Up to three Ethiopian battalions used to constitute Sector 4 of the UN Mission, covering the southern part of the country.
Many thousands of Ethiopian peacekeepers were also involved in the hybrid United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) in western Sudan.
Ethiopia also provided the entire force for the UN's Abyei mission, the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei, up until 2021.
Equipment Table
The following table provides a summary of some of the equipment potentially in service with the Ethiopian Army over the years:
| Equipment Type | Quantity | Origin |
|---|---|---|
| T-55 Tanks | 150 | Soviet Union, Belarus, Bulgaria, East Germany, Ukraine |
| T-54 Tanks | 150 | East Germany |
| M55 Quad Anti-Aircraft Machine Guns | 16 | United States |
