The Ethiopian Civil War (1974-1991)A. Valentino, Benjamin. Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century, 2004. Page 196. began on September 12, 1974 when the Marxist Derg staged a coup d"état against Emperor Haile Selassie, and lasted until the Ethiopian People"s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), a coalition of rebel groups, overthrew the government in 1991. The war overlapped other Cold War conflicts in Africa, such as the Angolan Civil War (1975-2002).