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The Derg (or Dergue; Amharic: ደርግ, lit. ' committee ' or ' council '), officially the Provisional Military Administrative Council (PMAC), [4] [5] was the Ethiopian state (including present-day Eritrea) that existed first from 1974 to 1987 as a military dictatorship and then until 1991 when the military junta formally "civilianized" the administration although remained in power.
Map during the Ethiopian Civil War showing insurgent strategic route in advance of Addis Ababa. The EPLF and ELF were successful in seizing 80% of Eritrea, but the Derg as soon as diverted their attention to Eritrea after victory against Somalia, fearing the loss of Red Sea in isolation of Ethiopia. In early 1978, they organized 90,000 powerful ...
Under the 1987 Constitution of Ethiopia, the military rule of the Derg evolved into the civilian government of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, and chapter 8 of the Constitution determined that the state would be subdivided into "autonomous regions" and "administrative regions".
The Derg regime was dissolved and replaced with the Tigray People's Liberation Front-led Transitional Government of Ethiopia. [13] The Ethiopian Civil War left at least 1.4 million people dead, with 1 million of the deaths being related to famine and the remainder from combat and other violence. [12]
The Ethiopian Red Terror, also known as the Qey Shibir (Amharic: ቀይ ሽብር, romanized: ḳäy shəbbər), was a violent political repression campaign of the Derg against other competing Marxist-Leninist groups in Ethiopia and present-day Eritrea from 1976 to 1978.
In 1984, the Derg formed Workers Party of Ethiopia (WPE) headed by Mengistu Haile Mariam and formalized the establishment of the People Democratic Republic of Ethiopia in 1986. The Derg devoted itself aligning Eastern bloc ( Soviet Union , Cuba, and Eastern European states) from the beginning with Soviet Union considered "natural ally to Ethiopia".
The Ethiopian government's unwillingness to deal with the famine provoked universal condemnation by the international community. Even many supporters of the Ethiopian regime opposed its policy of withholding food shipments to rebel areas. The combined effects of famine and internal war had by then put the nation's economy into a state of decline.
The Derg, the military junta that had ruled Ethiopia as a provisional government since 1974, planned for transition to civilian rule and proclaimed a socialist republic in 1984 after five years of preparation. The Workers' Party of Ethiopia (WPE) was founded that same year as a vanguard party led by Derg chairman Mengistu Haile Mariam.