The Derg's last independent leader
On 3 February 1977 he was outside the capital presenting a flag to a militia unit, which observers thought saved his life. Arrested at Derg headquarters on 11 November, he was shot the next day.
An Ethiopian officer of the founding generation of the Derg, the military committee that deposed the emperor in 1974. A major in the Fourth Division, he was elected its vice-chairman and became a lieutenant colonel after April 1975. In 1976 he directed the recruitment of tens of thousands of peasants for a militia bound for the Eritrean front, and was seen as symbolizing a conservative, nationalistic and religious outlook. He survived the 3 February 1977 shootout to become first vice-chairman, only to be executed on Mengistu's orders on 12 November 1977.
Activities and affiliations
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1974–1977
Ethiopia state institutionsVice-Chairman of the DergMain
Military command
Career Timeline
- 1974Helped organize the Derg; elected vice-chairman (Fourth Division representative)
- 1974–1977Deputy chairman of the Derg and second vice-chairman of the PMAC under Tafari Benti
- 1975Promoted to lieutenant colonel
- 1976Organizer of the peasants' militia (Operation Raza)
- 1977First vice-chairman of the Derg, February 1977
Related historical events
The Late Reconciliation Line and the Disputed Interpretation of His Execution
After becoming the last Derg member to retain some independence from Mengistu, Atnafu's political line moved in the opposite direction from radicalization. René LaFort writes that three and a half years of revolution had worn him to the bone, and that the man who had entered the picture books of the revolution with a raised fist and contorted face had become one who simply asked for pax. According to LaFort he advocated internal reconciliation: ending all the terrors, 'White' and 'Red'; extending a hand to both the EPRP and MEISON; external relations more balanced between the two great powers, which he appears to have sounded the United States about in September 1977; and pacifying the army by satisfying its main demands.
The reasons for his execution are disputed. Publicly, rumor held that tensions between the two men were so high that Atnafu had to submit to a close search before entering Mengistu's offices, and most experts hold that as the last rival after February 1977 his elimination was inevitable. LaFort dissents: having been put in charge of the militia late the previous year, Atnafu had, he writes, 'quite clearly abandoned the pursuit of power to a technical task, the raising, organization, and training of the militia', and so no longer posed a danger to Mengistu. Noting that Mengistu left the final meeting that ended in Atnafu's death before the decision was made and had defended Atnafu as long as he could without endangering himself, LaFort reads the execution as a sacrifice offered up to a defeat in need of a scapegoat, the price of the compromise reached among the Derg, the regular army and its factions. These readings are assessed differently across the sources; the execution itself is recorded as a firing-squad killing on 12 November 1977.