 Although Ethiopia is prone to chronic droughts, no one was prepared for the scale of drought and the 1983–1985 famine that struck the country in the mid-1980s, in which 400,000-590,000 people are estimated to have died.Hundreds of thousands fled economic misery, conscription and political repression, and went to live in neighboring countries and all over the Western world, creating an Ethiopian diaspora for the first time.Insurrections against Derg rule sprang up, particularly in the northern regions of Tigray and Eritrea.