1977
nián 2
yuè，
mén gé sī tú ·
hǎi '
ěr ·
mǎ lǐ yà mǔ (MENGISTUHAILEMARIAM)
zhōng xiào fā dòng jūn shì zhèng biàn，
dān rèn "
lín shí jūn shì xíng zhèng wěi yuán huì "
zhù xí hé guó jiā yuán shǒu。 1979
nián，
chéng lì yǐ jūn rén wéi zhù de "
āi sài '
é bǐ yà láo dòng rén mín dǎng zǔ zhì wěi yuán huì "，
shí xíng yī dǎng zhì。 1984
nián，
àn sū gòng mó shì zǔ chéng "
āi sài '
é bǐ yà gōng rén dǎng "。 1987
nián 9
yuè，
mén gé sī tú xuān bù jiě sàn "
lín shí jūn shì xíng zhèng wěi yuán huì "，
jié shù jūn shì tǒng zhì，
chéng lì "
āi sài '
é bǐ yà rén mín mín zhù gòng hé guó "，
bìng jiàn lì xīn yì huì，
mén dān rèn guó jiā zǒng tǒng hé zhèng fǔ shǒu nǎo。
1988
nián 3
yuè，
fǎn zhèng fǔ wǔ zhuāng huó dòng de "
è lì tè lǐ yà rén mín jiě fàng zhèn xiàn "(EPLF)
hé "
tí gé léi rén mín jiě fàng zhèn xiàn "(TPLF)
xiàng zhèng fǔ jūn fā dòng jìn gōng，
dà guī mó nèi zhàn bào fā。 1989
nián， "
è lì tè lǐ yà rén mín jiě fàng zhèn xiàn "
zhàn lǐng '
è shěng dà bù。 1991
nián 5
yuè 28
rì，
yǐ "
tí gé léi rén mín jiě fàng zhèn xiàn "
wéi zhù de '
āi gé zhèn jūn duì jìn rù yà de sī yà bèi bā，
mén gé sī tú zhèng quán xuān gào wǎ jiě。
In July 1977, sensing the disarray in Ethiopia, Somalia attacked across the Ogaden in pursuit of its irredentist claims to the ethnic Somali areas of Ethiopia (see Ogaden War). They were assisted in this invasion by the armed Western Somali Liberation Front. Ethiopian forces were driven back far inside their own frontiers but, with the assistance of a massive Soviet airlift of arms and Cuban combat forces, they stemmed the attack. The last major Somali regular units left the Ogaden March 15, 1978. Twenty years later, the Somali region of Ethiopia remains under-developed and insecure.
From 1977 through early 1978, thousands of suspected enemies of the Derg were tortured and/or killed in a purge called the "red terror". Communism was officially adopted during the late 1970s and early 1980s; in 1984, the Workers' Party of Ethiopia (WPE) was established, and on February 1, 1987, a new Soviet-style civilian constitution was submitted to a popular referendum. It was officially endorsed by 81% of voters, and in accordance with this new constitution, the country was renamed the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia on September 10, 1987, and Mengistu became president.
The regime's collapse was hastened by droughts and famine, which affected around 8 million people, leaving 1 million dead, as well as by insurrections, particularly in the northern regions of Tigray and Eritrea. In 1989, the Tigrayan Peoples' Liberation Front (TPLF) merged with other ethnically-based opposition movements to form the Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). In May 1991, EPRDF forces advanced on Addis Ababa. Mengistu fled the country to asylum in Zimbabwe, where he still resides.