Martyr Dr. Taha Muhammad Nour
A prominent figure in the struggle for independence, a devout patriot, a lawyer, and an intellectual. He graduated from Law school in Italy. He co-founded the Eritrean Liberation Front with five others in Cairo, Egypt in 1960. They eventually became part of the ELF’s “Supreme Council” and called on Hamid Idris Awate, the father of the Eritrean revolution, to start the armed wing of the revolution. Dr. Taha Mohammed Nur served the Eritrean revolution in various capacities including as the foreign relations officer of the ELF-PLF. An interesting story that is narrated is that when was a student at Cairo University, Boutros Boutros Gali (the Egyptian diplomat who later became the UN Secretary General) was his professor. Dr. Taha wrote a paper about the independence of Eritrea and Boutros Ghali “threw” the paper on his face saying: “We don’t know a country called Eritrea”. He returned to Eritrea after independence. When Boutros Ghali arrived in Eritrea to witness the referendum. Dr. Taha Mohammed Nur was one of the referendum commissioners. He welcomed Boutros Ghali and reminded him of the aforementioned incident. In 1994, he was named one of the 50 commissioners of the Constitutional Commission of Eritrea, which was chaired by Dr. Bereket Habteselasse and he served as its secretary. In November 2005, he was suddenly imprisoned as a result of an order from the dictator of Eritrea. No charges were made by the regime as to the reasons of his arrest. Dr. Taha died in prison in February 2008. He is the younger brother of the martyr Haji Musa Mohammed Nur.