Meb was born in Eritrea on May 5, 1975, the third son of Russom and Awetash Keflezighi. At the time, Eritrea was embroiled in an often-brutal 30-year war for liberation from Ethiopia (Eritrea finally achieved independence in 1993), and Russom was a liberation supporter. This meant that he sometimes had to leave his home in Adi Beyani to escape Ethiopian soldiers and their brutal massacres. Meb recalls that his childhood included regular encounters with death and dismemberment of his Eritrean friends and neighbors. He didn't see a car until he was 10 yrs old. Thinking it was a death machine, he took flight. "That was one of the races I lost," he once told the "New York Times". Awetash feared that her husband would be killed, and eventually convinced him to flee Ethiopia for a better life. He ended up in Milan, Italy, for 5 yrs, sending money home until he could afford to bring the family to Italy. That reunion took place in 1986, and afforded Meb his first chance to watch TV. He couldn't figure out how the actors got inside the small box.