THE BIOGRAPHY OF CURRENT ETHIOPIAN PRESIDENT
Sahle-Work Zewde (Amharic: ሳህለወርቅ ዘውዴ; born 21 February 1950)
is an Ethiopian politician and diplomat who is
the current President of Ethiopia,
the first woman to hold the office. A
diplomat, she was elected president unanimously by members of the Federal
Parliamentary Assembly on 25 October 2018.[1]
Sahle-Work was previously a career
diplomat, serving as Special Representative of United
Nations Secretary-GeneralAntónio Guterres to
the African Union and
Head of the United Nations Office to the African Union at the level of Under-Secretary-General
of the United Nations.[2]
Born in Addis Ababa,[3] Sahle-Work attended elementary
and secondary school at Lycée Guebre-Mariam in
Addis Ababa, after which she studied natural science at the University of
Montpellier, France.[4][5] She is fluent in Amharic, French, and English.[6]
Sahle-Work was only the second woman to be
appointed an ambassador in Ethiopia's history (Ambassador Yodit
Emiru was the first woman to hold an ambassadorship).[7][8]
A veteran in the Ethiopian foreign service,
Sahle-Work served as Ambassador to Senegal,[9] with accreditation to Mali,
Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Gambia and Guinea, from 1989 to 1993.[7] From 1993 to 2002, she was
Ambassador to Djibouti and
Permanent Representative to the Intergovernmental
Authority on Development (IGAD).[10][11] She later served as Ambassador
to France,[9] Permanent Representative to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) and accredited to Tunisia and Morocco from 2002 to 2006.[12]
Sahle-Work subsequently held other high
level positions including as Permanent Representative of Ethiopia to the
African Union and the United
Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and as
Director-General for African Affairs in the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia.[12]
Until 2011, Sahle-Work served as Special
Representative of United
Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Head of the United
Nations Integrated Peace-building Office in the Central African Republic (BINUCA).[13]
In 2011, Ban appointed Sahle-Work as
Director-General of the United
Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON).[14] Under Sahle-Work, the Nairobi
office became a more important UN center for East and Central Africa, per the
2012 Africa Yearbook.[15]
In June 2018, Secretary-General António
Guterres appointed Sahle-Work as his Special Representative to the African
Union and Head of the United Nations Office to the African Union (UNOAU) at the
level of Under-Secretary-General
of the United Nations.[12] She was the first woman to
hold the post.[14]
Sahle-Work was appointed as President of Ethiopia on
25 October 2018, the first woman to serve in the role[16] and the fourth president since
the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF)
coalition came to power.[17] She replaced Mulatu Teshome, who resigned in unclear
circumstances, and Sahle-Work is expected to serve two six-year terms.[6] Sahle-Work's appointment makes
her Africa's only serving female head of state, and the first female Ethiopian
head of state since Empress Zewditu.[6]
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