SUMMARY
Military faction (forces of Amsha Desta and Merid Negusie) was an armed group active in the Ethiopian conflict over government. Following a coup in 1974, a Marxist-Leninist junta commonly known as the “Derg” ruled Ethiopia. The Derg-led Government of Ethiopia – led by President Mengistu Haile Mariam - was soon challenged by a plethora of rebel organization, which pursued both separatist and government-based agendas. By the late 1980s, Ethiopia had endured almost two decades of conflict, and the Derg regime was hard-pressed by several powerful rebel organizations, such as EPRDF and EPLF, which had wrested control over large parts of the country from the government. It was in this context that the Military faction emerged; the primary goal of the group was to overthrow President Mengistu and install a provisional government.
On 16 May 1989, a segment of the Ethiopian armed forces launched an attempted coup in the capital Addis Ababa; it was also supported by troops in Eritrea’s regional capital Asmara. The primary leaders of the coup was the Ethiopian Chief of Staff Major General Merid Negusie and Air Force commander Major General Amha Desta; another prominent official partaking in the coup was Industry Minister Fanta Belai, a former Air Force commander. The primary motivation behind the coup was a growing demand for a peaceful settlement of the armed conflicts being waged in Ethiopia at the time. In a radio statement, Merid Negusie’s and Amsha Desta’s forces explicitly demanded a negotiated settlement to the conflict over Eritrea, a statement which was overtly supported by the main Eritrean rebel group EPLF; there was however no evidence that EPLF actively assisted the Military faction in conducting the coup attempt. No reliable estimate regarding the size of the mutinous faction’s forces in Addis Ababa was available, but several hundred officers and soldiers were either killed or arrested in connection to the attempted coup. Many of Merid Negusie’s and Amsha Desta’s supporters were also drawn from the 2nd Army stationed in Asmara. It was however unclear how many of the 2nd Army’s 175 000 troops supported the coup; given the swift suppression of the coup by forces loyal to President Mengistu, it was likely a relatively small number.
Following a few days of fighting, forces loyal to President Mengistu and the Government of Ethiopia defeated the Military faction. Many of the coup leaders were killed in fighting against government-loyal troops, and a majority of the survivors were imprisoned and executed.
