The Derg: Plunging Ethiopia Into Chaos

The Ethiopian famine that swept the country between 1983 and 1985 provided the world with countless chilling images. Children with kwashiorkor—their bellies extended out caused by fluid retention and a swollen abdomen—vultures circling those close to death, a country descending into hell.

The famine is commonly attributed to a severe drought that hit the country around this time, but there were some very human causes—not least the chaotic, haphazard governance of a group known as the Derg, which dragged the country through turmoil for nearly 15 years.

The Derg, a brutal military junta, seized control of Ethiopia in 1974, plunging the country into an era of unprecedented violence. Emerging from the shadows of political chaos, this collective of military officers dethroned Emperor Haile Selassie, ending centuries of imperial rule and promising revolutionary change. Instead, they ushered in a reign of terror marked by relentless repression, human rights abuses, and widespread suffering.

Before the rise of the Derg, Ethiopia was a nation steeped in tradition, ruled by an Emperor who symbolised Ethiopian independence and continuity. Yet despite his international acclaim, domestically, Ethiopia was grappling with severe economic hardships, social inequality, and growing discontent among its population. Famine and poverty plagued the rural areas, while political unrest simmered beneath the surface in the urban centres. It was a powder keg of a situation ripe for revolution, but few could argue that what came next was anything short of disastrous.

Background

Before the Derg’s ascent, Ethiopia was a land of stark contrasts and deep-rooted traditions. Under the long reign of Emperor Haile Selassie, the country maintained its sovereignty in a rapidly decolonising Africa. Apart from five years under Hitler-lite Benito Mussolini, the country had never been colonised—it remained a beacon of hope on a continent that had already been through hell and would face plenty more of it in the coming decades.

However, beneath the surface of this imperial facade, Ethiopia was struggling badly. Widespread famine, poverty, and social inequity were tearing at the fabric of society. The emperor’s autocratic rule, combined with his inability to address the dire needs of his people, led to growing frustration and unrest.

The breaking point came in 1974 when a series of military mutinies, labour strikes, and student protests culminated in a popular uprising. The emperor, who had ruled for over four decades, was deposed, marking the end of the Solomonic dynasty that had reigned for centuries. In the chaotic power vacuum that ensued, the Derg—a committee of low-ranking military officers led by Mengistu Haile Mariam—emerged as the dominant force. They promised radical land reforms, economic restructuring, and a new era of equality and prosperity.

This small group of military officials was gradually added to until there were around 120 members of the Derg, which essentially then shut up shop. No further members were admitted, and the secretive group acted as a cartel which retained a tight grip on the country for nearly 15 years.

On 27th August 1975, former emperor Haile Selassie died of what was at the time reported as respiratory failure. It would be another 20 years until that respiratory failure was revealed to have been caused by strangulation thanks to two officers of the Derg. His body was unceremoniously buried beneath a concrete slab in the palace gardens and wasn’t discovered until the 1990s when it was reburied with full honours.

Ideology and Goals

The Derg embraced a Marxist-Leninist ideology, envisioning a radical transformation of Ethiopian society. They promised to dismantle the old feudal system and build a socialist utopia where equality and prosperity would replace oppression and poverty. The junta’s rhetoric was filled with revolutionary zeal, pledging far-reaching reforms, abolishing aristocratic privileges, and establishing a people’s government.

The Ethiopian populace, weary of the endemic corruption and inefficiency under Emperor Haile Selassie’s rule, initially welcomed the Derg’s promises with cautious optimism. They saw a chance for real change in the Derg, a break from the past that had left the majority impoverished and marginalised. Internationally, there was a mix of scepticism and intrigue. Some countries, particularly those aligned with the Soviet bloc, saw potential in supporting a new socialist state in Africa, while others remained wary of the junta’s violent methods and ideological rigidity.

However, the Derg’s methods quickly morphed to reveal the monster beneath. The junta rapidly began to consolidate power, executing former officials and perceived enemies of the state. What started as a revolution of hope soon descended into a nightmare of terror and oppression, forever altering the course of Ethiopian history.

Resistance and Civil War

The brutality of the Derg’s regime inevitably spurred resistance. Opposition groups began to coalesce, driven by a desperate need to overthrow the tyrannical junta. These groups were diverse, ranging from the pro-monarchy Ethiopian Democratic Union to the far-leftist Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Party, the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF), rebels based in Tigray, and several other groups, each united by their common enemy but often deeply divided in their visions for Ethiopia’s future.

These groups engaged in fierce guerrilla warfare against the Ethiopian government, leveraging the rugged terrain to their advantage. The conflict was brutal and unforgiving, marked by atrocities on both sides, as villages were razed and vast numbers of lives were lost in the crossfire.

In 1977, the Ogaden region in the east of the country was invaded by Somalia, which required a massive effort to liberate. In fact, Ethiopia was only saved from defeat and permanent loss of territory through a massive airlift of military supplies worth $1 billion, the arrival of more than 12,000 Cuban soldiers and airmen and 1,500 Soviet advisors.

While fighting raged in the Ogaden region, the ongoing civil war was devastating the country, with external powers and neighbouring countries playing significant roles in the conflict. The Cold War context meant that the Derg received support from the Soviet Union and its allies, while resistance groups often garnered support from regional adversaries and Western countries looking to counter Soviet influence. This meant guns and weapons flooding into Ethiopia, fuelling a conflict that would eventually kill 1.2 million people.

Chaos Reigns

While the Derg was able to fight off much of the resistance, it could never bring the whole country under control, and its response was horrifying. Between 1976 and 1978, the Derg launched Qey Shibir, also known as the Red Terror, which sought to cleanse Ethiopian society by eliminating anybody deemed opposed to the regime.

Public executions, mass arrests, and torture became the norm as the Derg targeted anyone suspected of dissent. Streets became littered with bodies and pools of blood became a common sight. Civilians, students, and intellectuals who had initially supported the Derg found themselves caught in a maelstrom of violence, terrorised into submission, or exterminated for resisting.

In a landscape of fear and brutality, the Derg’s operatives ruthlessly hunted down perceived enemies. The regime’s internal security apparatus, spearheaded by the notorious security service known as the “Kebeles,” became synonymous with terror. Families of the executed were often forced to reimburse the government for the bullets used to kill their loved ones, adding a whole new layer of grotesque humiliation to their grief. The Derg’s relentless campaign of violence was aimed at eradicating any vestige of opposition, real or imagined.

Torture and extrajudicial killings were rampant. Suspected dissidents were routinely detained without trial and subjected to barbaric methods of torture designed to break their will and extract confessions. Testimonies from survivors recount horrifying details: prisoners beaten to the brink of death, subjected to electric shocks and forced to endure relentless psychological torment. The lucky ones were those who met a swift end—many others languished in agony, their cries for mercy swallowed by the oppressive silence of the Derg’s prison cells.

On 22nd March 1977, the Derg instigated a massive house-to-house search in Addis Ababa using civilian groups that they had armed to the teeth. An unknown number died that day, but the ransacking of properties and the open theft from government-sponsored armed thugs sent a shiver through Ethiopia.

A few days later, dozens were arrested at the Berhanena Selam Printing Press for their supposed political views but were soon released because of a lack of evidence. The next day, 9 of the arrested were found murdered, including a heavily pregnant woman. The killings shocked the country, and the perpetrator, a certain Girma Kebede, was later found to be the Political Bureau’s chief executioner. Not wanting to fuel the bad press, the Derg had Kebede and a few others executed for being enemies of the revolution—before continuing with their Red Terror that killed between 250,000 and 750,000, depending on which source you go on.

But it wasn’t just systematic violence. The Derg’s land reforms and nationalisation policies were central to their Marxist-Leninist vision. They aimed to redistribute land from the nobility and wealthy landowners to the peasantry, theoretically creating a more equitable society. However, the implementation was chaotic and led to disaster.

Large estates were seized without proper planning and the redistribution process often favoured those loyal to the regime. In the short term, this led to significant disruption in agricultural productivity, while causing widespread resentment among dispossessed landowners and a disorganised agricultural sector that began to fall apart.

Famine

The economic policies of the Derg, combined with severe droughts, led to one of the most devastating famines in Ethiopian history. The government’s response was marked by inefficiency and callousness. Rather than addressing the crisis, the Derg often prioritised military campaigns over humanitarian needs. International aid efforts were hampered by the regime’s suspicion and obstruction, limiting the reach and effectiveness of relief operations.

The famine decimated the population and highlighted the stark failures of the Derg’s governance, leading to a collapse of what little economic stability remained.

Ethiopia’s agrarian economy has always been vulnerable to climatic variations. Due to its location in the Horn of Africa, the country frequently experiences droughts and the 1980s saw severe shortages that significantly reduced agricultural output. The most affected regions were in the north, particularly Tigray and Wollo, areas already struggling with marginal agricultural conditions.

The combination of drought, overuse of agricultural land, inadequate irrigation infrastructure, deforestation, and a lack of agricultural innovation led to significant soil degradation—making the country highly susceptible to famine.

Many of these issues had been years in the making, but under the Derg regime, the Ethiopian economy suffered from tragic mismanagement that further exacerbated the problem. Farmers were organised into collectives, and agricultural output was subject to state control.

The Derg’s focus on large-scale state farms, often at the expense of smallholder farmers who made up most of the agricultural sector, proved inefficient and unproductive. Additionally, the regime’s insistence on low agricultural prices to control urban food costs demotivated farmers, reducing farm output and leading to widespread food shortages.

The ongoing civil war diverted manpower and financial resources away from productive activities, further disrupting agricultural production and distribution. The government’s counter-insurgency tactics often included scorched-earth policies and the deliberate destruction of crops and villages in rebel-held areas. These actions heavily contributed to the famine by displacing large populations and destroying the means of subsistence for many rural communities.

The 1983–1985 famine was one of the most severe in Ethiopia’s history and it’s estimated that between 400,000 and 1 million people died from starvation and related diseases. It was most acute in the northern regions, but few areas of the country escaped unaffected.

Fall of the Derg

The famine and civil war precipitated a broader economic collapse in Ethiopia during the 1980s. The country’s GDP contracted, inflation soared, and unemployment rates increased dramatically.

The Derg’s efforts to industrialise the economy were largely unsuccessful. State-owned enterprises were plagued by corruption, mismanagement, and a lack of investment. The industrial sector, which was supposed to be the backbone of the socialist economy, failed to generate sufficient output or employment.

The Derg’s power was a gradual unravelling. The regime, once feared and unyielding, began to crumble under the weight of its own brutality and the immense suffering it had inflicted upon the Ethiopian people. Famine, economic mismanagement, and continuous civil war slowly eroded the Derg’s grip on power. Its promises of a socialist utopia had long been shattered, replaced by widespread disillusionment and despair.

Yet, it took time to fall apart completely as the Derg engaged in a series of frantic makeovers that it hoped would convince the Ethiopian people that it wasn’t to blame for all the country’s hardships. In September 1987, Mengistu Haile Mariam announced that Ethiopia would be known as the Ethiopian People’s Democratic Republic, transforming the Derg into the Ethiopian Workers Party (EWP). After a failed coup attempt against Mengistu in 1989 and the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe in 1990, Ethiopia abandoned socialism altogether.

This shift resulted in the loss of inexpensive fuel and weapons supplies to Mengistu’s regime from the Soviet Union— itself close to death. Consequently, the government adopted free market policies and allowed opposition groups to join a unified party. In March 1990, the EWP was renamed again as the Ethiopian Democratic Unity Party (EDUP), with membership now extending to non-Marxists. But as they say, you can’t put lipstick on a pig.

Mengistu Haile Mariam, the architect of much of the Derg’s reign of terror, was seeing his power slipping away. In May 1991, as rejuvenated rebel forces closed in on Addis Ababa, Mengistu fled the country, seeking asylum in Zimbabwe. His departure was as sudden as it was inevitable, a desperate bid for survival by a man whose hands were stained with the blood of countless innocents. From that point, the collapse of the Derg was swift and chaotic, leaving a power vacuum quickly filled by the advancing forces of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF).

The transition to EPRDF rule marked the end of one of the darkest chapters in Ethiopian history, and as it took control of the capital, the end of the Derg’s oppressive regime was finally declared. The new government faced the monumental task of rebuilding a nation ravaged by years of war, famine, and systematic repression. The fall of the Derg signalled a new era for Ethiopia, but the scars left by the junta’s brutal rule would take generations to heal.

The tragedy of Ethiopia during the 1970s and 1980s was about as bad as it gets. A horrendous, tyrannical government instigating the kind of bizarre, poorly thought-through communist ideas that Mao would have been proud of, a Red Terror that may have killed around 700,000, and a famine where the number of deaths probably topped 1 million. This was a perfect storm of brutality, terrible luck, and ideological madness that dragged a once proud nation into darkness and on into hell.

Olivier Guiberteau

Key Takeaways

• The Ethiopian famine of 1983-1985 was exacerbated by the Derg’s chaotic governance and severe drought.
• The Derg, a brutal military junta, seized control in 1974, ending centuries of imperial rule.
• The Derg’s Marxist-Leninist ideology led to widespread repression, human rights abuses, and economic mismanagement.
• The regime’s Red Terror campaign between 1976 and 1978 resulted in massive public executions and torture.
• The famine and civil war led to the Derg’s economic collapse and eventual fall in 1991.

Frequently Asked Questions

What was the Derg?

The Derg was a brutal military junta that seized control of Ethiopia in 1974, ending centuries of imperial rule and ushering in a reign of terror marked by relentless repression, human rights abuses, and widespread suffering.

What led to the rise of the Derg?

The Derg emerged from a series of military mutinies, labour strikes, and student protests in 1974, culminating in a popular uprising that deposed Emperor Haile Selassie. The junta promised radical land reforms, economic restructuring, and a new era of equality and prosperity.

What was the Red Terror?

The Red Terror was a campaign launched by the Derg between 1976 and 1978 to eliminate anyone deemed opposed to the regime. It involved public executions, mass arrests, torture, and the killing of an estimated 250,000 to 750,000 people.

What caused the Ethiopian famine of 1983-1985?

The famine was caused by a combination of severe droughts, economic mismanagement by the Derg, and the ongoing civil war. The Derg’s policies, such as the organisation of farmers into collectives and the prioritisation of military campaigns over humanitarian needs, exacerbated the crisis.

How did the Derg’s land reforms contribute to the famine?

The Derg’s land reforms, which aimed to redistribute land from the nobility to the peasantry, were implemented chaotically. Large estates were seized without proper planning, leading to significant disruption in agricultural productivity and widespread resentment among dispossessed landowners.

What was the impact of the Derg’s rule on Ethiopia’s economy?

The Derg’s rule led to a broader economic collapse in Ethiopia during the 1980s. The country’s GDP contracted, inflation soared, and unemployment rates increased dramatically. State-owned enterprises were plagued by corruption and mismanagement, and the industrial sector failed to generate sufficient output or employment.

How did the Derg’s rule end?

The Derg’s rule ended in May 1991 when Mengistu Haile Mariam, the junta’s leader, fled the country as rebel forces closed in on Addis Ababa. The collapse of the Derg was swift and chaotic, leaving a power vacuum filled by the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF).

What was the role of external powers in the Ethiopian civil war?

External powers played significant roles in the Ethiopian civil war. The Derg received support from the Soviet Union and its allies, while resistance groups often garnered support from regional adversaries and Western countries looking to counter Soviet influence. This led to an influx of weapons and military supplies.

What was the Kebeles?

The Kebeles was the Derg’s notorious security service, synonymous with terror. It was responsible for the ruthless hunting down of perceived enemies, public executions, mass arrests, and torture.

What was the significance of the Ogaden War?

The Ogaden War was an invasion of the Ogaden region by Somalia in 1977. Ethiopia was only saved from defeat and permanent loss of territory through a massive airlift of military supplies worth $1 billion, the arrival of more than 12,000 Cuban soldiers and airmen, and 1,500 Soviet advisors.

Sources

• Original Into the Shadows video: The Derg: Plunging Ethiopia Into Chaos
• Hero image source by NoGhost / openverse, by-sa.

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