How to save Ethiopia’s democratic revolution

ETHIOPIANS AREEPRDFEPRDFEPRDF calling it their third revolution. The first was the fall of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974. The second was in 1991, when Ethiopians kicked out the Derg, a Marxist junta that had forced peasants onto collective farms at gunpoint, causing mass starvation. Now, after 27 years of less homicidal but still authoritarian rule by the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (), Ethiopians are getting their first real taste of freedom (see ).The seeds of revolution were sown at a phoney election in 2015, when the and its allies won an implausible 95% of the vote and every seat in parliament. Furious protesters took to the streets. The government shot dozens and arrested thousands, sparking riots. Young men burned foreign-owned factories and blocked roads. In April, desperate to end the mayhem, the named Abiy Ahmed, a 42-year-old reformist, as prime minister.