Mikael Imru

Mikael Imru as Ambassador to the United States, February 1961

Mikael Imru ( Amharic ሚካኤል እምሩ ; born November 10, 1929 in Addis Ababa ; † October 2008 ) was Prime Minister of Ethiopia from August 3 to September 12, 1974 .

biography

Imru was born the only son (he had seven sisters) of Prince Imru Haile Selassie and Tsige Mariam. He studied at the University of Oxford in England and then returned to his home country. He first worked in administration and was Deputy Minister of Agriculture from 1958 to 1959. He then switched to diplomacy and was first ambassador to Washington, DC (1959–1961), then to Moscow (1961–1965). For a short time between these diplomatic posts, he was Ethiopia's Foreign Minister in 1961 . From 1965 to 1968 he worked in Geneva for UNCTAD , a subsidiary of the United Nations . After becoming Minister of Industry and Trade in 1974, he succeeded Endelkachew Makonnen as Head of Government on August 3, 1974. After the final overthrow of his distant relative, Emperor Haile Selassie , he was removed from office on September 12th. Nevertheless, he remained in the government as Minister of Information until 1975. He later became a rural development specialist and worked for the World Bank . He campaigned very strongly with the Italian government for the return of stolen art objects from Ethiopia.

Web links

• rulers.org
• Lij Michael Imru dies (pdf, p. 2; 4.5 MB) in: ethiox.com, accessed on October 13, 2010