Also known as: Ginbot 20 · National Day (May 28)
Ginbot 20 — May 28 — marks the fall of the Derg, the military regime that ruled Ethiopia from the 1974 revolution until 1991. On that day EPRDF forces entered Addis Ababa, a week after the regime's leader, Mengistu Haile Mariam, had fled the country, closing a seventeen-year chapter remembered for the Red Terror, civil war and famine.
From revolution to dictatorship
The Derg — Amharic for "committee" — was the council of military officers that rode the 1974 revolution to power, deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in September of that year and ending the Ethiopian monarchy. It declared a socialist state, nationalized land and industry, and under Mengistu Haile Mariam consolidated into a dictatorship.
Its rule turned violent early: the Red Terror of 1976–78, a campaign against political opponents, killed tens of thousands, many of them students and young people. The regime fought prolonged civil wars against insurgencies in Tigray and Eritrea among others, and the catastrophic famine of 1984–85 — worsened by the wars and policy — fixed the era in the world's memory.
May 1991: the collapse
By early 1991 the regime's armies were breaking. The Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), the insurgent coalition advancing from the north, converged on the capital; Eritrean forces simultaneously took Asmara. On May 21, Mengistu Haile Mariam fled to Zimbabwe, where he received asylum, and in the early hours of May 28 EPRDF forces entered Addis Ababa with little resistance. The Derg era was over.
Ginbot 20 became the national holiday marking that end. It is observed with official ceremonies; like any anniversary of a political turning point, its public resonance has shifted with Ethiopia's politics in the decades since — but the date remains the civil calendar's marker for the end of military rule and, for Eritrea, the moment that opened the road to its 1993 independence.
Frequently asked questions
- When is Downfall of the Derg in 2027?
- Friday, May 28, 2027 — Ginbot 20, 2019 in the Ethiopian calendar.
- What was the Derg?
- The committee of military officers that deposed Emperor Haile Selassie in September 1974 and ruled Ethiopia as a military-socialist dictatorship until 1991, a period marked by the Red Terror, civil wars and the 1984–85 famine.
- What happened on May 28, 1991?
- EPRDF forces entered Addis Ababa, completing the collapse of the Derg government a week after its leader, Mengistu Haile Mariam, fled to Zimbabwe.
- What was the Red Terror?
- The Derg's campaign of political violence in 1976–78 against its opponents, in which tens of thousands were killed. The Red Terror Martyrs' Memorial Museum in Addis Ababa documents the period.