sentences:  The working group recommended that the military be professionalized and institutionalized, maintaining small numbers due to Ertirea's limited resources and small size.President Isaias Afwerki ignored most of their advice, however, and promoted 37 former combatants of the war for independence to the general officer ranks.This hampered the development of the military as an institution and was done so that he could play them off against each other and maintain the army's loyalty to him personally.