How Ethiopian rebels took power in 1991

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 30 November 2020

⏱️ 12 minutes

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Summary

In May 1991, the brutal Ethiopian dictator, Colonel Mengistu and his miltary regime were on the verge of collapse after years of civil war. The end came when a Tigrayan-led rebel movement advanced on the capital Addis Ababa and took power. They would rule for Ethiopia for decades. In 2014, we spoke to an American diplomat who witnessed the end of Ethiopia's civil war. Photo: EPRDF rebels in Addis Ababa, 28 May, 1991.

Photo: Rebels in Addis Ababa (BBC)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.7	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:08.5	As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.
0:18.0	What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,
0:24.6	poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.
0:29.7	If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.
0:40.0	Hello and welcome to the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service with me Alex Last.
0:46.0	And with the ongoing crisis in Tigray in Ethiopia, today we present another chance to hear an episode from 2014 about the final days of Ethiopia's long devastating
0:57.0	civil war when in 1991 rebel forces from Tigray led a guerrilla army to Addis Ababa to end the rule of the brutal dictator
1:06.7	Colonel Mengistu. It's May 1991 and after years of war rebels are approaching the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
1:21.9	The Ethiopian army is on the verge of collapse.
1:25.0	There was a great sense of an inevitability and it wasn't a question of if it was a question of when.
1:33.0	Robert Hodak was then the United States Chief of Mission in Ethiopia, based in Addis Ababa.
1:39.0	We were seeing all of these troops, tens of thousands that were falling back from the front to
1:45.5	Addis and they had no leadership and they were literally sort of wandering into town just with their uniforms
1:51.8	and they started selling their weapons.
1:54.0	Presiding over the collapse was Colonel Mengistu, the leader of a brutal Marxist military regime
1:59.8	that had run Ethiopia for the in military aid from the Soviet Union
2:10.6	to battle rebels from the northern regions of Tigray and Eritrea
2:15.0	which was fighting to regain its independence from Ethiopia. But as the Cold War
2:20.1	drew to an end, Soviet support waned. The rebels went on the offensive,
2:25.0	Mangistu was in trouble.
	...

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