Haile Selassie

Concentrated landownership, sharecropping arrangements and the interests of major landowners linked to the administration and army limited reform. The agrarian question became one of the principal grievances against the monarchy, encapsulated in the slogan "land to the tiller".

State of the evidence

Documented

The Ethiopian student movement became more radical in its demands for agrarian reform, democracy and social justice. Demonstrations, strikes and protests were regularly dispersed, with arrests, institutional closures and episodes of lethal violence.

State of the evidence

Documented

The Wollo famine caused tens of thousands of deaths. Historical and humanitarian sources describe awareness of the problem at the highest levels of government, delayed relief and efforts to minimise or conceal the scale of the disaster, making it a major symbol of the regime's failure.

State of the evidence

Well documented

Attribution

Political responsibility

Before the great famine of 1972–1973, severe famines had already struck northern Ethiopia and killed tens of thousands of people. Africa Watch research highlights deficiencies in the imperial regime's warning systems, relief mechanisms and political accountability.

State of the evidence

Documented

The federal settlement adopted under UN auspices guaranteed Eritrea its own government, parliament and rights. Under the imperial regime, parties were banned, the independent press closed, local languages progressively marginalised and institutional autonomy reduced.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Political responsibility

In November 1962, Eritrea's federal autonomy was abolished and the territory annexed as an Ethiopian province. This decision fuelled the independence conflict that would last nearly three decades.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

An attempted coup led by members of the imperial apparatus while the Emperor was abroad was bloodily suppressed. Contemporary American diplomatic assessments regarded it as revealing deep social and political discontent and a highly personalised system.

State of the evidence

Documented

Under Haile Selassie, Ethiopia pursued a gradual policy of restricting slavery, but the institution persisted until its complete legal abolition in 1942. The slow pace prompted international criticism, notably in the context of membership and return to international institutions.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated