biography
| name: |
Mengistu, Haile Mariam
|
pronunciation:
[menggistoo]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1937– )
|
| biography:
| Ethiopian soldier, politician, and president (1987–91), born in the Harar region, E Ethiopia. He studied at Holetu military academy, and joined the Ethiopian army, rising to the rank of colonel. He took part in the 1974 coup which removed Emperor Haile Selassie, then in 1977 led another coup which ousted the military regime. Despite Ethiopia's perilous economy, guerrilla fighting, and frequent droughts throughout the 1970s and 1980s, he managed to retain power with help from Russia and the West. In 1987 he sanctioned the return of one-party civilian rule under the Marxist–Leninist Workers Party, with himself as president. In 1991 when rebel groups closed in on Addis Ababa, he fled the country, and his government fell. He now lives in Zimbabwe. |
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