During the 1983–85 famine in Ethiopia, Mekelle was notorious for the seven "hunger camps" around the city. These housed 75,000 refugees with 20,000 more waiting to enter. During March 1985, 50 to 60 people died in these seven camps every day. In February 1986, the TPLF released 1,800 political prisoners from the Mekelle prison in a daring military action. The operation was named "Agazi," after one of the founding fighters of the TPLF, who had been killed in the second year of the Ethiopian Civil War.