Mengistu haile mariam biography of michael jordan

Dictatorpoliticianstatesman

Lt. Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam became the head of state of Ethiopia and chairman of the ruling military government (the Derg) after a 1974 revolution deposed Emperor Haile Selassie.

He was also the head of the central committee of Ethiopia's Socialist Workers Party. Mengistu resigned as head of state in 1991 and fled into exile.

Background

He was born in 1937 in the southern Ethiopian district of Walayta.

His father was a soldier and his mother a servant.

Haile selassie children

Some accounts of his youth maintain that at a young age he moved to Addis Ababa with his mother and grew up in the household of a prominent nobleman Ras Kebbede Tesemma.

Career

As a young man Mengistu joined the army and served as a private before attending Ethiopia's Holeta Military Academy.

He graduated in 1966 with the rank of second lieutenant and was assigned to the logistical and ordnance section of