UNIT SEVEN

INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS & EXTERNAL

RELATIONS, 1941–1995
7.1. Post-1941 Imperial Period
7.1.1. Restoration and Consolidation of Imperial
Power and External Relations
A. Ethiopia and Britain
In the post-1941 period, Britain recognized
Ethiopia’s status as a sovereign state with mutual
diplomatic accreditation, but it continued to exercise
the upper hand because of the role it played in the
liberation of Ethiopia from Fascist rule.
Another reason for the preponderant influence of
.

Britain in Ethiopia’s domestic and international

affairs was the continuation of WWII (1939-45)
which required adequate provision for the Allied
defense to win the war.
Accordingly, despite protests, the British
considered Ethiopia Occupied Enemy Territory
Administration (OETA).
The 1942 and 1944 agreements that Emperor
Haile-Selassie I was forced to sign with the
British show the ascendancy of the latter.
The 1942 agreement gave Britain a final authority
.

over Ethiopia’s foreign affairs, territorial integrity,

administration, finances, the military and the
police.
The British minster in Ethiopia enjoyed
precedence over other foreign diplomats in
Ethiopia and Britain was to approve employment
of other nationals by Ethiopian government.
Even more, British citizens held key posts in
Ethiopian administration as advisors and judges
while at the same time they maintained total
control over the country’s police force which was
set up in February 1942.
B. Ethiopia and the U.S.A
.

 The first official contacts between Ethiopia and

the United States of America traced back to 1903
when the two countries signed a Treaty of
Friendship and Commerce with the USA
delegate led under Robert P. Skinner.
 The relations between the two countries had been
in the doldrums because of the Tripartite
domination of the Ethiopian diplomatic scene until
the early 1940s.
 Following the Second World War, two super-
powers, the Soviet Union and the United States
emerged.
7.1.3. Oppositions and the Downfall of the
.

Monarchical Regime
A. Plots and Conspiracies
Various sectors of the society opposed the imperial
rule before the 1974 Revolution broke out.
Before the 1960s opposition to the regime took in
the form of plots and conspiracies.
After the 1960 Coup d’état, however, oppositions
gained wider mass support and came out more
open.
Some leaders of the resistance movement against
.

fascist rule were opposed to the restoration of the

emperor to the throne for he fled the country when
it needed him most whereas others wished for a
republican government.
One notable patriot who resented the fact that he
was not given a stature recognizing his contribution
to the Resistance was Dejazmach Belay Zeleke.
The emperor made Belay governor of a southern
province of Gojjam with the rank of Ras because
he wanted to remove him from his base in Bichena
in eastern Gojjam.
Belay rejected the offer and was even more
.

dissatisfied at dignified positions of Ras Haylu

Belaw (Governor General of Gojjam) and
Bitweded Mengesha Jembere (Deputy Governor
General of Gojjam).
In February 1943, forces from Debra-Marqos
and Addis Ababa invaded Belay’s district.
After fighting for three months, Belay surrendered,
was detained in Fiche from where he tried to
escape and return to Gojjam a few months later, but
was captured with his brother Ejigu. Taken back
to the capital, Belay was finally hanged and killed
in public.
Bitweded Negash Bezabih was a vice minister and
.

Senate President in the emperor’s administration

after liberation. He plotted to assassinate the
emperor and proclaim a republic in 1951.
The most fierce and sustained opposition to the
emperor came from Blatta Takele WoldeHawaryat,
who couched a plot in constitutionalist terms using
Yohannes Iyasu as front and with the support of
some contingents of the army.
But the plot was uncovered and he was detained.
In 1945, Blatta Takele Wolde-Hawaryat was
released and appointed as deputy Afe nigus.
He tried to assassinate the emperor on November
.

17, 1969, but his final plot failed and he barricaded

himself in his house and engaged in a shoot-out with
the police in which he was killed.
The most serious challenge to the emperor’s
authority came in 1960 in the form of a coup
attempt. The abortive Coup d'etat of 1960 was led
by the Neway brothers, Brigadier General
Mengistu and Girmame.
Finally, Girmame died fighting in the outskirts of
the capital and Mengistu was captured and hanged
after trial. The regime made some concessions after
the failed coup attempt, but failed to address the
root causes that triggered the coup itself.
B. Peasant Rebellions .

 Opposition among peasants in different parts of

the country against Haile-Selassie’s regime.
The Woyane Rebellion
The first peasant resistance against imperial rule
took place in Tigray, known in history as the
Woyane rebellion. The term Woyane means
'revolt' in Tigrigna language.
In October 1943, the imperial army under the
command of Abebe Aregay with the support of
the British Royal Air Force crushed the rebellion.
The government exiled or imprisoned the leaders
of the revolt.
 Causes of the Woyane Rebellion
1. Long-running problems stemming from the inequities
of the system and short-term factors caused the
eruption.
2. Peasants felt victimized by corruption and greed of the
territorial army unit stationed in the region and general
administrative inefficiency that led to the shiftnet of
peasants who possessed armament left by Italians
3. The peoples of Wejjerat and Raya-Azebo had wanted
to maintain their local autonomy that the government
violated
4. Another cause for the rebellion was the 1942 land
decree which forced peasants to pay tax arrears
whose collection was problematic.
The Yejju Rebellion .

 In 1948, peasants rose against the system after their

appeal against land alienation was ignored by the
government.
 With Qegnazmach Melaku Taye and Unda Mohammed
in the forefront, peasants stormed and freed inmates held
in Woldya prison. The nech lebash were called to quell
the unrest and eventually the leaders were publicly
flogged.
 Throughout the 1950s, localized skirmishes b/n
government forces and peasants expanded to Qobo,
Hormat, Tumuga, Karra Qore etc led by prominent
figures like Ali Dullatti (Aba Jabbi).
 Causes: the introduction of mechanized agriculture
that encroached on pastureland
The Gojjam Peasant Rebellion.

 In 1968, another violent peasant uprising set off in

Gojjam caused by the government’s attempt to
implement new tax on agricultural produce which the
parliament adopted in November 1967.
 The nobles of Gojjam refused to accept any limitation
upon the prevailing land tenure system and successfully
battled the regime over this issue.
 In 1950, a revolt broke out in Mota, Qolla-Daga Damot
and Mecha districts led by people like Dejach Abere
Yimam.
 The rebellion spread throughout Gojjam except Agaw-
Midir and Metekel which alarmed the government.
Finally the rebellion was subdued by the combined forces
of the army, police and nech lebash by the end of 1968.
 The Gumuz Rebellion .

 The Gumuz staged major armed rebellion against the

regime of Emperor Haile-Selassie in 1952/3. The
movement is named after one of its famous leaders, Aba
Tone.
 Root causes: administrative injustice, land and taxation
policies of the imperial regime.
 Aba Tone served the imperial regime with a position of Aba
Qoro responsible for collection of taxes, maintenance of
law and order as well as mobilization of the people for
public works in time of peace and for war in cases of
conflict.
 Finally, an open clash broke out between the policemen and
the Gumuz when tax collectors with the backing of the
police force attempted to force the people pay land taxes.
The Gedeo Peasant Rebellion.

As in many parts of rural Ethiopia, the major source

of peasant discontent in Gedeo was land alienation.
Petitions and appeals to higher authorities to curb the
continued land alienation proved futile.
Then peasants refused to pay erbo (1/4 of agricultural
produce payable to landlords), armed themselves with
traditional weapons like spears, swords and arrows
and clashed with the imperial army at Michille in
1960. That is why it was known as the Michille
rebellion.
Finally, Afe Nigus Eshete Geda, fined the elders
locally called the hayicha accused of supporting the
rebellion.
The Bale Peasant Rebellion .

 The Bale peasant uprising, which lasted from 1963 to

1970, presented the most serious challenge to the
Ethiopian government.
 The causes of the uprising were multifaceted. The
indigenous peasants largely became tenants on their own
land after the introduction of the qalad that initiated land
measurement in 1951.
 Peasants also suffered from high taxation, religious and
ethnic antagonism that reached to unprecedented level
after the appointment of Warqu Enquselassie as
governor of the territory in 1963.
 The revolt broke out in El Kerre led by people like Kahin
Abdi. It quickly spread to Wabe, Dallo and Ganale
under the able leadership of Waqo Gutu and others.
In 1967, the army, police, Territorial Army
.

(beherawi tor), settler militia (nech lebash) and

volunteers (wedozemach) launched massive
operations against the province.
The government of Somalia extended material and
moral support to the rebels as part of its strategy of re-
establishing a “Greater Somalia”.
Meanwhile, the rebels lost Somali support after
Mahammad Siad Barre took over the Somali
government in 1969 and found it impossible to sustain
their campaigns in southeastern Ethiopia.
The rebellion ended in 1970s after some of its popular
leaders including the self-styled General Waqo Gutu
surrendered to government forces.
C. Movements of Nations and Nationalities
.

Oppositions to the imperial rule did not come only from

individuals, peasants, students and the army.
The question of nations and nationalities for equality,
freedom and autonomy was also assuming a
significant development towards the end of the imperial
regime.
Among the movement of nations and nationalities of
this period, the Mecha-Tulama movement of the
Oromo deserves a special treatment here.
In January 1963, the Mecha-Tulama Welfare
Association (MTWA) was formed with the objective of
improving the welfare of the Oromo through the
expansion of educational, communication and health
facilities in Oromo land.
 Founding members of the association included Colonels
.

Alemu Qitessa and Colonel Qedida Guremessa,

Lieutenant Mamo Mezemir, Beqele Nedhi, and Haile-
Mariam Gemeda.
 In the next two years, the association attracted large number
of Oromo elites, including such high-ranking military
officers as Brigadier General Taddesse Birru.
 Mecha-Tulama was dissolved in 1967 following the
imprisonment and killing of its prominent leaders such as
Mamo Mezemir and Hailemariam Gemmeda by the
regime’s forces.
 Brigadier General Taddese Birru was captured while
retreating to the bush and eventually sentenced to death.
Later the death sentence was commuted to life
imprisonment and he was exiled to Gelemso where he
stayed until the outbreak of the 1974 revolution.
The brutal suppression of the Mecha-Tulama
.

Association, however, did not end the struggle of the

Oromo for justice, equality and liberty.
In 1971 an underground movement called the
Ethiopian National Liberation Front (ENLF) was
formed by Oromo elites, perhaps by former members
of the association.
In 1973, some members of the ENLF and other Oromo
nationalists formed the Oromo Liberation Front
(OLF) with the aim of establishing an independent
State of Oromia.
The following year, OLF launched an offensive against
the imperial regime in Hararghe.
Also the biggest military challenge to the imperial
regime came from Eritrea.
In 1958, a number of Eritrean exiles had founded the
.

Eritrean Liberation Movement (ELM) in Cairo. In

1961, the ELM evolved into the Eritrean Liberation
Front (ELF) or Jabaha in Arabic.
By 1966 the ELF challenged imperial forces
throughout Eritrea. In June 1970, two splinter group
liberation movements emerged from the ELF. These
were the Popular Liberation Forces (PLF) and the
Salfi Natsenet Eritrea (Front for Eritrean
Independence).
The PLF was formed in the Red Sea area led by
Osman Salah Sabbe while Salfi Natsenet Eritrea
emerged under the leadership of Isayas Afeworqi.
In early 1972, a new coalition of forces composed
.

of Eritrean Liberation Front-Popular

Liberation Front (ELF-PLF) led to the founding
of the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front
(EPLF) or Sha'abiya in Arabic.
After a long and bloody civil war, the EPLF was
able to establish its hegemony over the
independence movement.
Finally, the EPLF succeeded in achieving de facto
independence in 1991 and which eventually was
confirmed through referendum in 1993.
D. The Ethiopian Student Movement (ESM)
.

 The Ethiopian student movement was building up in the

center as a strong opposition against the regime.
 The movement started within the university, students had
turned into a radical opposition and were already
marching on the streets from 1965 onwards and by 1968,
it was spreading to high schools.
 The parliament’s rejection of tenancy reform bill in 1964
triggered student protest in the following year demanding
“Land to the Tiller”.
 By early 1970s, the student movement coupled with other
under-running issues such as rising inflation, growing
discontent of urban residents, corruption and
widespread and yet covered-up famine especially in
Wollo all prepared a fertile ground for a revolution.
7.2. The Derg Regime (1974-1991)
.

 The mass uprising that finally put an end to the old

regime came in February 1974.
 From January 8 to 15 1974, soldiers and non-
commissioned officers stationed at a frontier post Negele-
Borana mutinied protesting their bad living conditions.
 Teachers throughout the country protested against the
implementation of an education reform program known
as Sector Review, which they deemed was
disadvantageous for the poor and biased against them.
 Although the Ethiopian Teachers Association (ETA)
had coordinated demonstrations against the program
already in December 1973, it called for a general strike
demanding a number of other social reforms on 18
February 1974.
 On the same day, taxi drivers went on strike demanding
.

increase in transport fees (fifty percent) due to rise of

petrol prices that followed the Arab-Israeli Yom Kippur
war of 1973.
 Students, workers and the unemployed youth joined
the protests and vehicles particularly buses and luxury
private automobiles were attacked.
 The government responded by suspending the Sector
Review, reducing petrol prices and raising the salaries
of soldiers.
 In spite of this, the uprisings continued and on February
28 the cabinet of Prime Minister Aklilu Habte-Wold
resigned. He was replaced by Endalkachew Mekonnin
who was an Oxford-educated member of the aristocracy.
 On March 8, the Confederation of Ethiopian Labour
.

Unions (CELU) staged a successful general strike.

 It was only a matter of time before the strikes and
demonstrations spread to the provinces.
 A major popular demonstration was made on April 20 by
about 100,000 Muslim residents of the capital and their
Christian supporters who came out demanding religious
equality.
 The leading opposition against the Endalkachaw cabinet
were the students.
 The Derg was officially formed on June 28 1974 when it
held its first meeting at the headquarters of the Fourth
Division. “Derg” a Ge’ez word for “Committee” was the
shorter name given to the Coordinating Committee of
representatives from various military units: the Armed
Forces, the Police and the Territorial Army.
 However, officers above the rank of major were suspected
.

of supporting the old regime and therefore were not

included.
 Hence, Major Mengistu Haile-Mariam of the Third
Division of Hararghe, and the vice-chairman, Major
Atnafu Abate of the Fourth Division, came to be key
figures.
 For some time the Derg exercised power parallel with the
Endalkachew’s cabinet and the emperor tied up in a dual
state, trying to keep a balance between the two.
 However, on August 1, Endalkachew was imprisoned
and replaced by Lej Mikael Emiru as prime minister.
Meanwhile, the Derg continued arresting other members
of the regime whom it considered obstacles to the
revolution.
The Derg also tried to define its ideology and declared
.

the motto, “Ethiopia Tikdem” (“Ethiopia First”),

“Yaleminim Dem” (“Without any bloodshed”) .
The Derg continued systematically working to isolate
the emperor and removing the supports of his imperial
power.
Finally, on September 12, Emperor Haile-Selassie I
was deposed and detained at the Fourth Division
headquarters.
The Derg then proclaimed itself the Provisional
Military Administrative Council (PMAC) and
assumed full powers. All strikes and demonstrations
were immediately banned.
Attempts at Socio-Economic Reform
.

 The Derg took a series of measures that aimed at

fundamentally transforming the country. In December
1974, what was called the Edget Behibiret Zemecha
(Development Through Cooperation Campaign) was
inaugurated.
 In this campaign, all high school and university
students and their teachers were to be sent to the
countryside to help transform the life of peasants through
programs such as literacy campaigns and the
implementation of the awaited land reform proclamation.
 However, the campaign was opposed by most of the
civilian left as a system that the Derg designed to remove
its main opponents from the center.
 To appease the oppositions, the Derg changed its slogan
.

of “Ethiopia First” to “Ethiopian Socialism”.

 It also adopted slogans like Ethiopian Unity or Death,
Revolutionary Motherland or Death, and later Every
Thing to the War Front, Produce while Fighting or
Fight While Producing etc.
 In 1975 banks and insurance companies were nationalized
following a series of proclamations. Over seventy private
commercial and industrial companies were then
nationalized.
 Finally, in March 1975 the Derg made a radical land
reform proclamation which abolished all private land
ownership and set the upper limit on family holdings at
ten hectares.
There was the “Green Campaign” of 1978 aimed at
.

bringing about rapid economic development, the

literacy campaign aimed at irradiating illiteracy,
and the “Red Star Campaign” of 1982 that aimed at
solving the Eritrean problem.
Of these campaigns, only the literacy campaign
registered some degree of success.
The Derg used peasant associations to control the
countryside and the urban dwellers’ associations
(kebele) to control the towns.
The kebele became battleground when the struggle
between the Derg and the Ethiopian People’s
Revolutionary Party (EPRP) (formed in Berlin in
1972) reached its bloodiest phase in 1976/7.
The EPRP targeted kebele leaders and assassinated
.

them while they in turn led the government’s

campaign of terror against the EPRP called the “Red
Terror”, as opposed to the “White Terror” of the
EPRP.
Initially, the leftist opposition to the Derg came from
two rival Marxist-Leninist political organizations
called the EPRP and the All-Ethiopian Socialist
Movement (acronym in Amharic, Meison).
The Derg pushed by the dominant leftist political
culture systematically abandoned “Ethiopian
socialism” and embraced Marxism-Leninism.
 Derg proclaimed the National Democratic Revolution
.

Program which was the Chinese model for socialist

revolution and had identified feudalism, imperialism and
bureaucratic capitalism as the three main enemies of the
people.
 In a few months, Derg’s leftist political organization
known as Abyotawi Seded (Revolutionary Flame) was
launched.
 In 1977 an alliance called Emaledeh (the Union of
Ethiopian Marxist–Leninist Organizations) was
established as prelude to the formation of one vanguard
party. The Emaledeh was composed of Meison,
Abyotawi Seded, Wezlig, Malerid and Ech’at (the
Ethiopian Oppressed Masses Revolutionary Struggle)
founded by Baro Tumsa.
 The Derg faced another challenge. In the summer of 1977,
.

the government of Somalia led by Siyad Barre waged a

large-scale war against Ethiopia.
 The Somali National Army crossed the border into Ethiopia
and carried out military operations in Degahbour,
Kebridehar, Warder and Godey taking control of Jijiga and
large scale pockets of western regions in the first two weeks
of the war. Yet Somalia’s did not last long.
 The government mobilized a force of about 100,000
peasant militia and other forces that were trained at
Angetu, Didessa, Hurso, Tateq and Tolay in a short time
with the help of USSR advisors and equipment.
 Finally, with 17,000 Cuban troop and the help from
Southern Yemen Democratic Republic the Somali
National Army was defeated at Kara-Mara near Jigjiga
on March 4, 1978.
 The Union of Ethiopian Marxist-Leninist Organizations
.

fell apart once Meison defected the Derg and its leaders
were consequently either killed or arrested as they tried to
retreat to the countryside.
 The other three member organizations Ech’at, Wezlig, and
Malerid were successively expelled from Emaledeh and
their leaders and members executed or detained.
 It was only Mengistu’s Seded that remained as the
authentic Marxist-Leninist organization in the country.
 In December 1979, the Commission for Organizing the
Party of the Working People of Ethiopia (COPWE) was
established with this motive. In September 1984, the
Workers’ Party of Ethiopia was inaugurated during the
celebration of the tenth anniversary of the coming of the
Derg to power. It was given that Mengistu became the new
party’s secretary-general.
 It was when Shengo (PMAC National Assembly)
.

proclaimed the People’s Democratic Republic of

Ethiopia (PDRE) in 1987 that such elaborate
organizational set-up designed to ensure total control of
society reached its peak. With the birth of the PDRE, the
Derg officially ceased to exist.
 A typically Communist constitution already on its way,
Colonel Mengistu had become President of PDRE,
secretary general of WPE and Commander in chief of the
national armed forces with Fisseha Desta as Vice
President while Fiqre-Sellassie Wegderes headed the
Council of Ministers as Prime Minister with five deputies.
 Finally it turned out that Mengistu could not stay in
power more than four years after he was proclaimed
president of PDRE.
 Rural-based movements fighting for national self-
.

determination thrived as liquidation of the urban-based

multi-national movements like the EPRP and Meison
intensified in the center. These included the:
Oromo Liberation Front (OLF),
Islamic Front for Liberation of Oromia,
Afar Liberation Front,
Sidama Liberation Front,
Beni Shangul Liberation Front and
Gambella Liberation Front.
 Some of these fronts appeared only in the last days of the
Derg.
 The two significant liberation fronts which could be
considered to have jointly brought about the downfall of
the Derg were the EPLF and the TPLF.
 The government’s military failure came after defeating
.

the invading force of Somalia; the Derg turned its forces

to the north, with the rather too assured slogan that “the
victory scored in the east will be repeated in the north.”
 Initially the plan seemed to go well when the EPLF forces
pulled back under the massive assault launched by the
Derg, which regained control over the rebel’s major
strongholds in 1976/7.
 However, the retreated EPLF forces were not driven out
of their fortress at Naqfa in northern Eritrea.
 In March 1988, EPLF scored a major victory at Afabet,
north of Asmara, from its stronghold in Naqfa-Raza.
When in 1990, EPLF forces captured the port town of
Massawa, it became only a matter of time before the
capital, Asmara, also fell to them.
 The final decisive blow to Mengistu’s regime came to be
.

administered by the TPLF that aimed to secure the self-

determination of Tigray within the Ethiopian polity. The
TPLF, at its inception, was grounded on the cumulative
grievances of Tigray people against the successive
regimes of Ethiopia.
 TPLF, which after liberating Tigray, continued to move
forward and made the necessary organizational
adjustments forming a bigger front known as the
Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front
(EPRDF). The member organizations were TPLF, the
Ethiopian People’s Democratic Movement (EPDM),
the Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO)
and the Ethiopian Democratic Officers’ Revolutionary
Movement (EDORM).
Other Liberation Fronts including the Oromo Liberation
.

Front (OLF), Afar Liberation Front, Sidama Liberation

Front, Gambella Liberation Front and Beni Shangul
Liberation Front also became active.
In 1990 and 1991 in consecutive and stunning
campaigns, EPRDF forces drove the Derg out of
Gondar, Gojjam, and Wollo and parts of Wallagga
and Shewa and approached the capital from the north
and west.
In 1990 Oromo forces dismantled the Derg army of the
131st Brigade in battle that liberated Asosa and
Bambasi in the then Wollega province. In the
meantime, negotiations for a peaceful end to the
conflict were underway between the government and
the EPLF and the TPLF in Atlanta, Nairobi, and
 On May 21, Mengistu fled the country first to Nairobi and
.

then to Harare (Zimbabwe).

 There remained no resistance left that the Derg troops could
put.
 In London, the government delegation could not bargain
anymore after the flight of the president.
 EPLF forces entered Asmara and Assab and announced the
de facto independence of Eritrea.
 The PDRE Vice President, Lt. General Tesfaye Gebre-
Kidan appealed for an end to the civil war on May 23 1991.
 Prime Minister Tesfaye Dinqa left for the London peace
conference mediated by the U.S.A’s Foreign Affair African
Service head Mr. Herman Cohen on May 27 1991.
 In the early hours of May 28 EPRDF forces triumphantly
entered Addis Ababa.
7.3. Transitional Government .

 On 1 July 1991, a handful of organizations of which some

were organized along ethnic lines assembled to review the
draft Charter prepared by the EPRDF and the OLF. The
gathering was called the Peace and Democracy
Transitional Conference of Ethiopia.
 The USA was at the forefront in providing the necessary
diplomatic backing for the Peace and Democracy
Conference.
 The Conference was attended by delegates from the UN,
the OAU, the G7, the US, the USSR, Sudan, Kenya,
Djibouti and Eritrea. Eritrea was represented by its future
president, Isayas Afeworki.
 The Conference debated and approved the Transitional
Charter on the basis of which the Transitional
Government of Ethiopia was created.
 Representatives of 27 organizations formed a Council of
.

Representatives (COR) which acted as a legislative body

(‘Parliament’).
 This transitional parliament had 87 seats of which 32 were
taken by the EPRDF and the remaining 55 seats were
divided among the 23 non-EPRDF organizations.
 At the same time, a Council of Ministers was formed as an
executive branch, with Meles Zenawi as the President of
the Transitional Government of Ethiopia (TGE).
 Meles Zenawi then appointed a Prime Minister (Tamirat
Layne) and a seventeen-member Council of Ministers. Key
posts were given to members of the EPRDF and OLF.
 In December 1994, the constitution of the Federal
Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) was ratified,
taking effect following federal elections in mid-1995.
 The constitution stipulates that the country would have
.

nine federated states based on identity and settlement

patterns.
 The federal arrangement sought to decentralize power to
the regional states by accommodating the country’s
various ethno-linguistic groups.
 After the election, Meles Zenawi assumed the
premiership while Dr. Negasso Gidada became head of
state.
 Meanwhile, EPLF set up a Provisional Government of
Eritrea in 1991. This was followed by a referendum to
decide the fate of Eritrea in which the majority of the
population voted for independence from Ethiopia.
 In May 1993, the Government of Eritrea was formed
with Isayas Afwerki becoming the first elected president
of the country after independence.
 .

LANDLOCKED
COUNTRY????