History
Before it became the government in 1991, the EPRDF was a rebel group battling the military junta known as the Derg. Formed from the union of the TPLF and the Ethiopian Peoples Democratic Movement (EPDM) in early 1989, they were later joined by the OPDO (Oromo of the TPLF and EPLF, and Oromo members of EPDM) and the Ethiopian Democratic Officers’ Revolutionary Movement (a small body of Derg officers captured by TPLF, most notably at Shire in February 1989, which was later disbanded after the establishment of the Transitional Government of Ethiopia.
In the early 1990s, following the collapse of the Mengistu Haile Mariam government, the EPRDF drew interest and support from the United States. Heritage Foundation Africa expert Michael Johns wrote that "there are some modestly encouraging signs that the front intends to abandon Mengistu's autocratic practices."
The EPRDF held its sixth party congress in September 2006 at Mek'ele in the Tigray Region.
Read more about this topic: Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front
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