Ethiopia keeps Eritrea

A waste of money and lives. Eritrea would fight to the end. Ethiopia should have focused on gaining Assab (and the narrow strip of land around it), since it would be an easy way to gain access to the sea--all of Eritrea is pointless to try and again. Even now, a lot of Ethiopia's imports are done through Assab. If Ethiopia had gained/kept Assab, then they would have been years ahead of nowadays (at least since Ethiopia now wants to copy PR China).
 
Could EPRDF turn on EPLF following the Ethiopian Civil war and try to retain Eritrea

How would such a war go
It couldn't afford to, considering the EPLF controlled all of Eritrea and the EPRDF was still fighting pro-Derg holdouts throughout the country and needed to consolidate her position. It could potentially attempt to go for Eritrea if the 1998-2000 border war just kept escalating and Ethiopian forces ended up occupying all of Eritrea after the collapse of her conventional forces but that doesn't mean Ethiopia can hold onto Eritrea long-term.

I think that what @metalinvader665 recommended is the best case scenario.
 
I doubt that Ethiopia can keep Eritrea with any 1980's POD. Only way might be that Ethiopia gives large autonomy sometimes after WW2 but before the revolution. But not sure how achieve this.
 
I doubt that Ethiopia can keep Eritrea with any 1980's POD. Only way might be that Ethiopia gives large autonomy sometimes after WW2 but before the revolution. But not sure how achieve this.
Just have Haile Selassie allow the Eritreans to retain their autonomy and not directly annex her in 1962.
 
The Imperial government actually managed to contained the Eritrean insurgency through settling differences with Sudan and utilizing Israeli advisors whilst the Eritrean insurgents lost their material support from Beijing. Not to mention, the Eritrean Liberation Front was becoming more fragmented during the First Eritrean Civil War as it attempted to crush those breaking away to form other Eritrean independence organizations. If an Eritrean-wide offensive can be launched some time during 1971-72, you could see organized resistance being decisively crushed by the Imperial Ethiopian Army which successfully contains the Eritrean insurgency with little effort. Ethiopia holds onto Eritrea as it makes sure the Eritrean insurgents remain uncoordinated and focuses on dealing with similar insurgencies throughout the rest of Ethiopia.
 
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