Ethiopia's Dictator Threw Children From Helicopters - The Red Terror

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]Did you know that in 1977 [music] Ethiopia, children were being thrown from helicopters as crowds watched below? This was the Red [music] Terror, orchestrated by dictator Mengistu Hailemariam. What he did to an entire generation makes Stalin [music] look merciful. Mengistu's forces went house to house in Addis Ababa hunting families. [music] They built torture centers where parents were forced to watch their children die.

[00:00:24]But the most twisted part? Families had [music] to pay for the bullets used to execute their own kids before they could claim the bodies. Students and young [music] intellectuals were the primary targets. Mengistu believed that killing children would prevent future opposition [music] to his Marxist regime. Survivors describe mass graves overflowing with the bodies of teenagers and young adults. The helicopter executions became public spectacles [music] of terror. Young people were thrown to their deaths while crowds were forced to watch, sending a clear message about the cost [music] of resistance. In just 2 years, over 500,000 people were systematically murdered. Mengistu didn't just eliminate political opponents. He destroyed an entire generation while claiming to build a workers' paradise.

[00:01:05]This African Stalin's reign of terror remains one of history's [music] most calculated genocides.