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Cris Bouroncle / AFP - Getty Images, file
A file picture taken in 2009 shows Meles Zenawi at the 9th Summit of the African Peer Review Forum (APRF) in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
Updated at 5:54 a.m. ET: Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, a senior Africa figurehead, died of an infection while being treated abroad for an undisclosed illness, state-run television said on Tuesday.
Speculation that Meles, 57, was seriously ill grew after he failed to attend an African Union summit in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa last month.
"Prime Minister Zenawi suddenly passed away last night. Meles was recovering in a hospital overseas for the past two months but died of a sudden infection at 11:40 (on Monday night, or 4:40 p.m. ET)," state television said.
Hailemariam Dessalegne, the deputy prime minister, was expected to be sworn in early Tuesday, according to the Twitter account of the Addis Fortune newspaper in Addis Ababa.
"Deputy Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegne will sworn in Parliament soon." Bereket
— Addis fortune (@addis_fortune) August 21, 2012#Ethiopia#MelesZenawi
Meles, who led the Horn of Africa country for more than two decades, was born into a middle-class family but dropped out of university to join an armed insurrection led by the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), according to a BBC obituary.
Meles seized power in 1991 from Mengistu Haile Mariam's military junta. As president and then prime minister he turned Ethiopia into a key player in regional security affairs.
His forces, widely regarded as among the strongest on the continent, have entered Somalia twice to battle Islamist militants, winning him accolades from the West for supporting its fight against al-Qaida-linked groups.
Unspecified condition
Ethiopia's government said last month that Meles was taking a break to recover from an unspecified condition. Diplomats in Addis Ababa had said Meles was being treated in Brussels for an undisclosed illness, while others said he was in Germany.
Somali Islamist militants hailed Meles' death as a "historic day" and said Ethiopia, which has troops inside Somalia, would now crumble.
"We are very glad about Meles' death. Ethiopia is sure to collapse," Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, the spokesman for Al Shabaab told Reuters. Meles twice rolled his troops across the border to help crush Islamist insurgencies.
Kenya's Prime Minister Raila Odinga told the BBC he feared for the stability of Ethiopia following Meles' death, citing the continued threat of ethnic violence.
In an Aug. 16 post on the Think Africa Press blog, entitled Ethiopia: What Might a Post-Meles Era Bring?, Yohannes Woldemariam wrote: "The stability of Ethiopia's regime is anchored on the strength of its military, support from the U.S., and the individual intelligence and charisma of Meles."
During his time in office Meles was credited with steering Ethiopia towards economic growth and also helped mediate in several regional disputes, including rifts between Sudan and South Sudan.
"I believe that any successor to Meles will focus first on domestic issues and for the most part leave the regional and international engagement to other countries, at least until the new leader is firmly established in office," David Shinn, former U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia, told Reuters recently.
"For internal security reasons, there will be a continuing focus on Somalia and I do not foresee any significant change towards Eritrea," he said, referring to Ethiopia's arch-foe with whom it fought a decade-long border war.
But Ethiopia would be less willing to devote a lot of time and resources to problems further afield, Shinn said.
However, international rights groups say Meles was intolerant of dissent. Several opposition figures and journalists have been arrested under a 2009 anti-terrorism law.
State television said details of his funeral would be announced soon, the Horn of Africa country's first state burial in modern times.
Emperor Haile Selassie was laid to rest in 2000, 26 years after he was deposed. His body was found decades later beneath a palace lavatory in what forensic experts said were signs he had been murdered.
Another deposed leader, Mengistu Haile Mariam lives in exile in Zimbabwe.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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Meles has been a loyal servant of rhe USA for the last 20 years. For such a loyal servant, the USA has been providing an economic, political and diplomatic support and cover up for the crime committed against the people of Ethiopia. If there is "no significant change towards Eritrea", it is because of the USA's antagonistic foreign policy towards that small country. The USA does not tolerate any country, big or small, which does not declare itself subservient to American Imperial Power. By the way, Meles died suddenly 60 days ago, and not yesterday. I would like to send my sincere condolences to the State Department, and in particular to Susan Rice, Madam Secretary, who had been a fantastic tool in promoting her dear and sweetest friend at the UNSC.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with being a "loyal servant of the USA", but that does not necessarily make you a good person or a good leader.
As a leader of a "sovereign and independent nation" there is nothing as degrading as being a servant to a foreign power than being a true and loyal servant to you own people. There is a word called "TREASON" which also exsists in other languages.
Dear Gabriel,
I suggest you get your facts straight. 1st of all, Eritrea is condemned by the UN and states all over the world not because she isn't submissive to the US, but because the country's leader, one of the modern day dictators, is openly supporting terrorists operating in the eastern African region. Furthermore, Meles was one of the greatest leaders Africa has ever seen, it would be incredibly difficult for the world to find another leader who has the wisdom and dedication that Meles had so often displayed. I offer my condolences to his family, friends and the people of Ethiopia.
Dear Yayeh,
I also suggest you get your facts straight. What the UN Security Council based its decision was on lies presented by non other than the best friend of PM Meles, Susan Rice. She had made it her number 1 priority personally, and as the State Department Policy to "tame" Eritrea - which means to make subservient to the American Empire. The UNSC has been a tool for the American foreign policy. For all the lies he presented to the UNSC, the so called expert has been fired from his post.
UNITED NATIONS, August 21 -- The UN has received detailed complaints about
its experts, Matt Bryden on Eritrea and Steve Hege on the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda.
PM.MELES was great leader as most Ethiopian believe,no one would deny this fact.today is really a day of sadness because of losing visionary leader who aims to achieve many courage taking tasks .when you are a leader only few choices are possible.world is all about balance, meles may had make mistakes,but personally i believe he balanced it wiz better deed that made us logical when we say he is great leader ."loyal servant of US " could never be suitable explanation for Meles,indeed its reflects personal hater which arises from narrow minded thought.RIP MELES ZENAWI
talkative man, meles is wonderfull man
Talkative, he was!! That is why his Western promoters and handlers really believed he was intelligent and charismatic instead of a wind bag!
All about PM Meles Zenawi an articleBy Thor Halvorssen and Alex Gladstein:
"First off, many of the rosy development statistics given out by the Ethiopian government are simply fraudulent; independent sources still rank Ethiopia at the very bottom of poverty indexes. Second, what genuine economic and public health transformations Zenawi did bring to Ethiopia were achieved with a top-down model that mirrored the statist command he implemented over all other aspects of Ethiopian life.
Zenawi built a totalitarian state, guided by Marxist-Leninism, complete with acult of personality and zero tolerance for dissent. Like Saddam Hussein or Bashar al-Assad, he filled the country’s top political and economic positions with men from his own Tigaray ethnicity. When elections did occur, he won them with Saddam-like numbers, most recently, 99 percent of the vote. Civil society organizations were harassed into submission or banned. His government only allowed one television station, one radio station, oneinternet-service provider, one telecom, one national daily, and one English daily—all churning out government propaganda. Zenawi used this information hegemony to heavily censor news available to Ethiopians, taking special delight in preventing them from hearing news from exile groups outside the country.
Zenawi’s critics were jailed, killed or chased out of the country: in fact, more journalists were exiled from Ethiopia in the last decade than any other country on earth. Let’s restate that: Zenawi kicked out more journalists than any other tyrant on the planet, thereby monopolizing control over information. His favorite tactic was labeling dissidents as terrorists. Journalists risked up to 20 years in prison if they even reported about opposition groups classified by the government as terrorists. The most emblematic case is that of Eskinder Nega, a PEN-award-winning author sentenced to 18 years in prison this July for questioning the government’s new anti-terrorism laws.
Many in the West like to credit Zenawi with “keeping Ethiopia together” despite ethnic differences, war, famine and regional instability. Dissidents, however, maintain that Zenawi was always at war with his own people. When towns and villages rose up against Zenawi’s military regime, they were put down brutally. There was, and still is, a climate of fear. With 85 million Ethiopians suffering under his thrall, Meles Zenawi constructed one of history’s most depraved states in terms of numerical human suffering."
Susan Rice and the rest prefer to keep all the dirt under the carpet and create a ROSY PICTURE OF THEIR FRIEND. And thus, the American public - the tax payer is kept in the dark in total ignorance.
Ethiopian diseased PM Meles Zenawi died from complications of treatment for a grave disease .Immunocompromised. Ethiopia's new PM (according to its Constitution )is Vice PM HAILEMARIA DESSALEGN, who studiedn Tampere (Tammerfors)Techinal Institute (Univ) earning his Diplom Engineer degree in 1992-his thesis water/sewarage cleanup since he worked as a student at the Tampere Water /Sewerage disposal/cleanup plant. After graduating he movedf back to Ethiopia becoming a Dean (Prof) at Ethiopia's Arba Michnin University. He joined the g'ment in 2010.
He actually choked to death on a piece of rice.
It sounds like he was a great man and sacrificed most of his adult life for his countrymen and his cause. I salute you!
He was an iron fisted ruler, but in that region of the world that's what you have to be...He was a leader, no doubt he will be missed...
"We are very glad about Meles' death. Ethiopia is sure to collapse," Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, the spokesman for Al Shabaab told Reuters. Meles twice rolled his troops across the border to help crush Islamist insurgencies
thus the intelligence of terrorist holding their own personal agendas
to wish death on others or to ok death will put you head long with death itself
sadsadsad
prayers for zenawi
Sounds like he may have had a disease of some kind, and it killed him quick. Cancer is a likely culprit. Its an explanation for his trip to Germany, which could have been for special tests. Or he may not have been sick at all, and his trip was just a coincidence. Maybe he was poisoned? Not unheard of in that part of the world. And with his enemies, not that far fetched. Its also possible he committed suicide too, to avoid a painful undignified death. If he was in fact sick. But it could be any number of things that killed him.
This will just further destabilize that part of Africa. Which sadly means lives will be lost. And the Muslims will get to dig-in that much deeper. All in all, it was better that he was alive. Despite his own bad deeds.
His food taster had the week off.
Sounds like a case of lead poisoning (caused by a bullet).
Must have been the tacos.
I sense CIA foul play. Can you feel it?
The great satan has to find another demon to do its biddings. Imagine, a man dies and he is remembered for being one of America's agents of death and destruction.
The ethiopian people are starving, but America sends weapons to feed the children.
In the history of the world, there cannot have been a more blood thirsty nation and people than America and Americans.
....are you retarded????.......
No, a troll maybe.
Most likely one of those 'brave' freedom fighters that kill children to promote their cause. Either that or he just took a break from stoning a rape victim to death to proselytize.
Now climb back under the bridge. If you stay out in the open too long you might have to substantiate yourself to a man.
The divine kingship tradition runs deep in Ethiopia and keeping the death of a divine king secret is an integral part of it. Unfortunately, as in this case, the king was anything but divine. May a new era of freedom and democracy blossom in this ancient land.
This shows they will get you, no matter where you go. Was it Brussels or Germany?
I love this comment. "Kenya's Prime Minister Raila Odinga told the BBC he feared for the stability of Ethiopia following Meles' death, citing the continued threat of ethnic violence." Just like in his country?
It looks like Iran is going to FORCE them to be their allie.
NOW is the time to send Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton and Louis Farahkahn over there to help them.
1) Likely a MRSA infection.
2) Meet the new boss; same as the old boss.
likely pneumonia. Being stagnant is a killer. For sure he had MRSA, maybe VRE etc....hospitals give you these bugs. We all carry them but our immune systems keep them in check. In a weakened condition, there is no fighting chance.
Another African leader dead. Hmm ! A continent where the leaders prefer to travel abroad for medical care and leave their citizens to face the dilapidated medical facilities in their countries. This time the western doctors couldn't save him. Until African leaders are intelligent enough to improve their health care system so that they and their citizens will all enjoy, death will always be on their door step.
death is always on the door step, where ever you are. No one escapes. At his age, I think he did fairly well. Many Africans never see thirty. Look at his legacy....he did well.
African leaders are always dying suddenly after a protracted illness (Yar Adua of Nigeria, Atta Mills of Ghana). If someone has been in hospital for 2 months, how is his death sudden? If people choose not to leave power to take care of their health, God will show mercy on his people and remove them in his own way. There has been political suppression in Ethiopia of the the majority tribe (the Oronos) which this article didnt mention at all. If there is chaos after a leaders death its just that the simmering oppression comes to the fore.
Condolesences to his family and hopefully Ethiopia will overcome this tragedy with another pro-leader on the fight against terrorism in Ethiopia and abroad.
What ? suddenly ? who writes these pieces ? you do not die suddenly when you have been an in-patient at a hospital for 2 months. He was ill and chronically at that. It is a miracle he survived in a hospital setting that long. Usually infections get you much sooner.
he could have been obamas son
...as heard from the Shady Lakes Trailer Park in Hapsburg Mississippi upon hearing this news:
'
"Hey Kooder, Ethiopia...?... dats in Mabry or Dickerson County?"
"Meles Zenawi...?.... those Greeks gots some weird Azz names"
"Did'nt this guy play along side Dr J. and the Philadelphia 76ers?"
"Ephiopia.... aints that near Utopia?"
"Wima, git yer pants on Woman, we're goin ta the Golden Corral"
those Ethiopian not lackey lose thire brave and strong leader .God bless Melese
...as heard from the Shady Lakes Trailer Park in Hapsburg Mississippi upon hearing this news:
'
"Hey Kooder, Ethiopia...?... dats in Mabry or Dickerson County?"
"Meles Zenawi...?.... I'm tellin ya Jimbo, those Greeks gots some weird Azz names"
"Aint he that Mexi-can fella that done washed dishes down at Mom's Kuntry Kitchen last year?"
"Ephiopia.... aints that near Utopia?"
"Wima, git yer pants on Woman, we're goin ta the Golden Corral"