Ethiopia: Downfall of the Derg Day

By British Expat, 27 May 2010

Ethiopia’s National Day commemorates the downfall of the Derg regime which ruled most of the country between 1974 and 1991 and overthrew Emperor Haile Selassie in 1975. Its rule was marked by a civil war which lasted throughout its existence, and by the catastrophic famine of the mid-1980s. On its overthrow President Mengistu Haile Mariam escaped to Zimbabwe, where he remains in exile.