Seyoum Mesfin

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Seyoum Mesfin ( Tigrinya ሰዩም መሰፍን ) (born January 25, 1949 in Adigrat , Tigray region , Ethiopia ; † January 13, 2021 ) was an Ethiopian politician and foreign minister from 1991 to 2010 .

biography

After finishing school at the Bahar Dar Polytechnic Institute, Mesfin completed a four-year course at the Faculty of Science at the University of Addis Ababa .

He later joined the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), founded in 1975, and rose to become one of the leading figures within its executive body. Later he also became chairman of the Foreign Committee of the Revolutionary Democratic Front of the Ethiopian Peoples (EPRDF) and was a member of the executive boards of the TPLF and EPRDF.

After the successful overthrow of the regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam in May 1991 with the support of the Eriterian People's Liberation Front (EPLF) of Eritrea, which was then part of Ethiopia , he became Foreign Minister in the government of Meles Zenawi and held this office until 2010.

On December 28, 2004, he gave a speech to the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York on politics in the region, in particular on Ethiopia's relations with Eritrea and Somalia . In his function as foreign minister, he also campaigned as a partner of the USA in the fight against terrorism in the Horn of Africa and later defended the invasion of Ethiopian troops in Somalia on December 24, 2006 as a success.

He was killed by the Ethiopian army in January 2021 in the wake of the Tigray conflict .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Statement by HE Mr. Seyoum Mesfin Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia at the 59th Session of the United Nations General Assembly. In: ethioembassy.org.uk. September 28, 2004, archived from the original on April 20, 2016 ; accessed on January 14, 2021 .
  2. ↑ Jason McLure: Interview with Seyoum Mesfin. In: Newsweek . April 11, 2009, archived from the original on April 15, 2009 ; Retrieved January 14, 2021 (English, reproduced on ethioforum.org).
  3. ^ Tigray: Ethiopian army kills ex-Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin. In: Al Jazeera . January 13, 2021, accessed January 13, 2021 .
personal data
SURNAME Mesfin, Seyoum
SHORT DESCRIPTION Ethiopian politician
DATE OF BIRTH January 25, 1949
PLACE OF BIRTH Adigrat , Tigray Region , Ethiopia
DATE OF DEATH January 13, 2021