The Eritrean armed struggle was launched on September
1, 1961 by a notorious shifta (bandit), Hamid Idris Awate. Hamid Idris Awate
was from Gash Barka Region. He served in the Italian army but when the Italian
army was defeated in 1941, he went back home to his village. Sooner in the
1940s he became a great shifta leader. During the British administration,
banditry was wide spread in Eritrea resulting in unbearable atrocities and
suffering on the people of Eritrea with Awate at the forefront.
