Mesfin Hagos
Encyclopedia
Mesfin Hagos was a founding member of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front
Eritrean People's Liberation Front
The Eritrean People's Liberation Front was an armed organization that fought for the independence of Eritrea from Ethiopia. It emerged in 1970 as an intellectual left-wing group that split from the Eritrean Liberation Front .-Background:...

 (EPLF) in 1977. Before founding that organization he had joined the Eritrean Liberation Front
Eritrean Liberation Front
The Eritrean Liberation Front was the main independence movement in Eritrea which sought Eritrea's independence from Ethiopia during the 1960s and 1970s. In the very late 1950s unorganized political movement seeking independence was secretly active as small cells...

 (ELF) in 1966 as an ordinary member. He eventually would become Deputy Commander of ELF Zone 5.

Mesfin Hagos left the ELF in 1970 with Isaias Afewerki
Isaias Afewerki
Isaias Afewerki is the first and current President of Eritrea, attaining that status when he led the Eritrean People's Liberation Front to victory in May 1991, thus ending the 30-year old armed liberation struggle that the Eritrean people refer to as "Gedli".-Early life and rise to power:Afewerki...

. Mesfin Hagos was a part of the founding leadership of the EPLF. Mesfin Hagos briefly served as the Chief of Staff in the EPLF.

In the election for the Presidency, he lost to Isaias Afewerki by one vote. After Independence he led a mutiny of soldiers but was later appointed and confirmed as Eritrea's first Minister of Defence. In 1995 he stepped down from his post and became the Regional Administrator of the Southern Region
Debub
Debub Region, also known as the Southern Region, is a region of Eritrea. It lies along a portion of the national border with Ethiopia.-Overview:...

.

In 2001 he joined the G-15 which among other things suggested the constitution of Eritrea to be implememnted and undertake presidential election. Eritrea was one party state with president Isaias one the seat since independence 1991. Fortunate for mesfin, he happened to be overseas at the moment when all the remaining minsters and founders of EPLF were picked from their homes and arrested incommunicado. Nobody knows their whereabouts. Mesfin Hagos is now a member of an Eritrean Democratic Party, based outside Eritrea.
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