1972–1975 Wollo famine
famine in Ethiopia during Haile Selassie regime
The 1972–1975 Wollo famine was a major famine in the Ethiopian Empire during the reign of Emperor Haile Selassie. The famine widely ravaged two provinces as well as converging areas such as the Afar-inhabited arid region by early 1972. During 1972 and 1973, the famine killed between 40,000 and 80,000 people. In response, the government initiated the Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (RRC), a department that aimed to reduce the famine severity and coordinate international assistance. The famine led to the mobilisation of pastoralists and nomads in general, while allowing feudal landlords to force tenants to pay high rents while escorting their retinue of armed guards.
The Wollo famine is regarded as one of the main root causes of Haile Selassie's reign collapse. It has been estimated that the death toll reached 250,000 people in 1975. This caused a peasant rebellion in Ethiopia, which continued through the successive but failed Derg. There was also the rebellion of Dejazmach Berhane Meskel, who assaulted former landlords and government security forces, while also attacking the Derg Militia for multiple years.
Background
Early signs of famine were reported in Tigray Province in 1958.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “1972–1975 Wollo famine” as famine in Ethiopia during Haile Selassie regime. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as famine in Ethiopia during Haile Selassie regime. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q114617374. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1972, 1975, 1973 and 1958.
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This entry incorporates text from “1972–1975 Wollo famine” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.