The Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) 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 (ELF).

The Christian-dominated EPLF and the mainly Muslim ELF first struggeled among themselves in a contested civil war (1972-1974) before succeeding in liberating large parts of the country together in 1977. However, their success was short lived and in 1978, the EPLF retreated to its northern stronghold region of Sahel on the Sudanese border.

In the early 1980s, new armed conflicts between the rival EPLF and ELF led to the latter being marginalized and pushed into neighbouring Sudan. The EPLF remained the only relevant opposition to Ethiopian occupation in Eritrea.

In 1988, the EPLF started an attack from the northern province of Sahel towards the south. In 1991, together with an allied Ethiopian left-wing organization, the TPLF (Tigrayan People's Liberation Front), the EPLF managed to isolate and then defeat the Ethiopian military in western Eritrea. In May 1991, the TPLF took power in Ethiopia and on May 24, the EPLF marched into the Eritrean capital, Asmara.

The EPLF's follow-up party, the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), has been the only political party in Eritrea since independence was proclaimed in 1993.

The EPLF was an egalitarian movement in which 30% of the fighters were women. Its influence in the extremely patriarchal and conservative Eritrean society was significant, and its values have strongly shaped the ideology of the now governing PFDJ.