On November 23, 1974, a night that became known as Bloody Saturday or the Massacre of the Sixty, the radical faction of Ethiopia's ruling Derg seized full control by executing some sixty officials of the imperial government together with the Derg's own first chairman, General Aman Andom, cementing the movement's turn toward Marxist dictatorship. Aman Andom, a popular general who had chaired the Derg since the September deposition of Haile Selassie, had clashed with the committee's radicals over the war in Eritrea and over the fate of the imprisoned imperial officials, and had tried to check the growing power of Mengistu Haile Mariam. On November 23 the Derg moved against him: after his loyalist units were eliminated, Aman Andom was killed at his home, and that same night sixty officials of the old imperial government, including two former prime ministers and Haile Selassie's grandson Admiral Iskinder Desta, who had been held awaiting trial on corruption charges, were executed by firing squad at Kerchele (Alem Bekagn) Prison.
The executions were announced over Ethiopian radio the next day. Brigadier General Tafari Benti became the new chairman.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Target identified in Coup Atlas research: General Aman Andom, the Derg's first chairman and head of state, killed on November 23, 1974 along with some sixty imperial officials in the Massacre of the Sixty.
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Aman Andom (Derg chairman and head of state, killed)
Mengistu Haile Mariam (radical Derg figure who prevailed)
Tafari Benti (general who became the new chairman)
Sources
On 23 November the Massacre of the Sixty took place, in which 60 officials of the Haile Selassie government, including two former prime ministers, were executed by firing squad in Kerchele Prison, the execution heard over Ethiopian Radio the next day; those killed included General Aman Andom, one of the leaders of the coup, and Haile Selassie's grandson Admiral Iskinder Desta.
After eliminating units loyal to him, the Derg removed General Aman from power and killed him on 23 November 1974, along with some of his supporters and 60 officials of the previous Imperial government, in what became known as the Massacre of the Sixty, after which Brigadier General Tafari Benti became the new Chairman of the Derg and head of state with Mengistu and Atnafu Abate as vice-chairmen.
Leadership transitions within the PMAC underscored internal power struggles, with Aman Andom killed in a factional clash on November 23, 1974, leading to Major General Tafari Benti's appointment as chairman and Lieutenant Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam emerging as a key radical influence.
Further executed at this time were roughly 200 former cabinet ministers, government officials, provincial governors, and judges who had been held in the cellars of the National Palace awaiting trial on charges of corruption and maladministration, as the Marxist-Leninist Coordinating Committee moved to abolish the semi-feudal system.
Killings protocol applied: this entry documents a mass execution and every death claim is cited and attributed, not editorialized. The core figure is the sixty imperial officials executed at Kerchele (Alem Bekagn) Prison plus the Derg's own chairman Aman Andom killed at his home; sources note the toll of high officials in this period was larger still, with one account citing roughly 200 former officials executed around this time, which is given as an attributed figure rather than merged into the sixty. Fate coding: the dataset codes the deposed leader killed and labels the event a palace coup, accurately, as this was an internal seizure within the ruling Derg in which the radical faction killed the sitting chairman Aman Andom and took full control. Paired record: this November 23 record is the internal Derg massacre; the companion 1974-09-12 record is the deposition of Haile Selassie, a distinct dataset event. Arc forward: Mengistu consolidated power and launched the Red Terror from 1977, a separate later chapter.
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: General Aman Andom, the Derg's first chairman and head of state, killed on November 23, 1974 along with some sixty imperial officials in the Massacre of the Sixty..
Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; killed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset, v2.2.2
Peyton, Buddy, Joseph Bajjalieh, Michael Martin, and Andrea Gerald. 2026. Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset. Cline Center for Advanced Social Research. V.2.2.2. February 17. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. doi: 10.13012/B2IDB-9651987_V10
“Ethiopia Says Aman Died in Gun Battle,” November 27, 1974
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →