Eritrean People's Liberation Front fighters launched a coordinated land, sea, and air assault on Massawa, Ethiopia's key naval base on the Red Sea. The operation, one of the most complex the EPLF ever mounted, crippled Ethiopian naval power and became a turning point in the three-decade Eritrean war for independence.
By 1990, the Eritrean People's Liberation Front had spent nearly thirty years fighting for independence from Ethiopia, evolving from a lightly armed guerrilla movement into a disciplined conventional force capable of combined-arms operations. Massawa, a historic port city on the Red Sea, was Ethiopia's principal naval base and a lifeline for supplying its garrisons across Eritrea.
Operation Fenkil, launched in the predawn hours, combined infantry assaults with a daring amphibious component: EPLF fighters, many of whom had trained secretly, seized small boats and struck the harbor directly, catching the Ethiopian navy off guard. Ethiopian MiG jets bombed the city in retaliation, causing civilian casualties, but by the end of the fighting the port had fallen.
The capture of Massawa effectively destroyed Ethiopia's Red Sea fleet and severed a critical supply route, accelerating the momentum that led to Eritrean independence in 1993 following a referendum. The battle is still commemorated in Eritrea as one of the defining military achievements of the liberation struggle, and the wrecked hulls of Ethiopian ships remained visible in Massawa's harbor for years afterward.