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The Ethiopian Civil War occurred from 1974 to 1991 in the aftermath of the communist Provisional Military Government of Socialist Ethiopia's coup d'etat against the last Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie in 1974. The provisional government, nicknamed the Derg ("council"), established a military junta and a communist state, but the Derg soon faced rebellions from anti-communist rebels, armed separatist forces, the Eritrean independence movement, and rival communist factions. The country devolved into chaos, which was exacerbated by a famine from 1983 to 1985 which killed up to 1.2 million people and boosted public support for the rebel movements. The Derg dissolved in 1987, forming the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia with the goal of legitimizing and continuing their rule. However, the USSR ended its support for the communist regime in 1990, and the Ethiopian regime was soon overwhelmed by the rebel groups. In May 1991, after the PDRE was defeated in Eritrea, Mengistu Haile Mariam proceeded to flee the country, and the EPRDF coalition entered the capital of Addis Ababa on 4 June 1991, overthrowing the Workers' Party of Ethiopia. The war left around 1 million people dead from the famine and 579,000 people dead from the violence; Ethiopia would not recover from the Derg regime's mismanagement and poverty for decades to come, and regional separatism and ethnic nationalism continued to undermine national unity under the nominally-democratic EPRDF regime.

Background[]

During the 1950s, the Ethiopian Empire was embroiled in political and economic turmoil due to Emperor Haile Selassie's inability to improve Ethiopia's quality of life or development or to prevent human rights abuses by his government. In addition, power was concentrated in the hands of the nobility, which rejected many of the Emperor's modernizing reforms. The Empire survived a 1960 coup attempt, but a famine outbreak in 1973 led to protests which enabled the military to overthrow him on 12 September 1974. The military then formed the Provisional Military Government of Socialist Ethiopia, nicknamed the "Derg" ("council"), with Aman Andom serving as its first Chairman. Aman was a moderate who aimed to achieve a bloodless revolution, and he also favored a peaceful resolution for the Eritrean War of Independence. The other members of the Derg junta opposed his claim to leadership over the rest of them, and they began the first round of show trials and executions in November 1974. Aman appealed to the military to overthrow the Derg, but junior junta member Mengistu Haile Mariam intercepted this appeal and sent soldiers to arrest Aman, leading to his death in a shootout. Tafari Benti then assumed leadership of the Derg as Mengistu's puppet, and, on 21 March 1975, the Derg abolished the Ethiopian monarchy and replaced it with a Marxist-Leninist communist one-party state. On 27 August 1975, Haile Selassie died in Derg custody at the Jubilee Palace in Addis Ababa, allegedly strangled to death. The Derg then went on to nationalize most of the country's urban real-estate holdings and industries.

War[]

Red Terror[]

Mengistu uniform

Mengistu Haile Mariam

However, the power vacuum left behind by the Derg's coup led to numerous civilian opposition groups challenging the Derg's rule. In addition to the Eritrean separatist movements, the government also faced the monarchist Ethiopian Democratic Union, the rival Marxist-Leninist Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party (EPRP), and the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF). In 1976, the Derg initiated the "Red Terror" against political dissidents and rebel movements in Ethiopia, leaving between 50,000 and 750,000 people dead. In addition, the government also targeted the MEISON student movement in an attempt to consolidate its power, unleashing the smaller "White Terror". On 3 February 1977, Mengistu became Chairman of the Derg after having Tafari executed for his alleged EPRP sympathies, and he took a hardline stance against the regime's opponents. By August 1977, the EPRP and MEISON leadership was either dead or in hiding in the countryside, but the collateral damage caused by the purges led to a boost in popular support for the rebel groups.

War and famine[]

Ethiopian famine

The Ethiopian famine

On 13 July 1977, the Somali National Army began to infiltrate soldiers into the Ogaden region of Ethiopia to aid the Western Somali Liberation Front in its separatist insurgency against the Derg, leading to the start of the Ogaden War. The USSR and its allies pulled their support from Siad Barre's Somalian dictatorship and instead airlifted aid to the Derg, helping the Ethiopians with defeating the Somali offensives by March 1978. The war used up valuable resources, and the draining effects of constant warfare, the separatist insurgencies in Eritrea and the Tigray Region, the Derg's land redistribution programs, and mismanagement and corruption on the part of the Derg led to a famine breaking out from 1983 to 1985, killing over 1 million Ethiopians. Hundreds of thousands of Ethiopia fled the country and formed a major diaspora for the first time, and thousands of other Ethiopians joined rebel movements due to their increasing hatred of the Derg regime. Even the Derg's main communist backer, the USSR, demanded that the Derg transition into a civilian-based vanguard party, and, in 1987, Mengistu formed the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia with himself as its President and leader of the Workers' Party of Ethiopia.

Fall of the Derg[]

Mengistu last speech

Mengistu's last speech

On 15-19 February 1989, however, the Eritrean EPLF dealt a decisive defeat to the Ethiopian army at Shire. The TPLF also gained the support of Ethiopia's suffering peasantry, clergy, and other opponents of the regime, evicting the PDRE from Tigray by the end of 1989. In 1990, amid the Dissolution of the Soviet Union, the USSR cut off aid to Mengistu's regime, forcing a desperate Mengistu to formally renounce Marxism in favor of a mixed economy. This was not enough to quell popular discontent against his regime, and, in May 1991, the EPRDF rebel coalition advanced on the capital of Addis Ababa from all sides. Mengistu abandoned most of his fellow WPE and Derg leaders by fleeing to Zimbabwe that month (at the behest of the United Nations, seeking to avoid a bloody last-stand battle in the capital), and EPRDF forces entered Addis Ababa on 4 June 1991. The EPRDF transitional government disbanded the WPE, arrested almost all of the prominent Derg officials, and began Ethiopia's transition towards being a federal state.

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