ETHIOPIA: Where’s Meles Zenawi?

Like the children’s book where readers have to pick out the title character called Wally from huge crowd scenes, almost everyone in Ethiopia is trying to find their Prime Minister.

So where did Meles Zenawi go? For more than a week, no one has seen the 57-year-old former rebel leader.

His political opponents have said he past away last week in the Belgium capital of Brussels while the government denies the reports. The critical online journal, Ethiopian Review, which is banned by the government told Somalilandpress that Meles died last Sunday. They said they received reliable information from an employee of Ethiopia’s national carrier, the Ethiopian Airlines, who are said to be a close aid of Meles.

“An Ethiopian Airlines employee, who wants to remain anonymous, informed Ethiopian Review this afternoon (Thursday) that Ethiopia’s dictator Meles Zenawi has died 4 days ago. But according to our sources, his bodyguards are still at St. Luc Hospital in Belgium,” they told us.

Government spokesman Bereket Simon on Thursday denied similar claims made by opposition groups saying the prime minister was receiving medical care and he was “good and stable condition”.

The Ethiopian Review earlier reported that Meles was “terminally ill” with brain cancer but again the government dismissed the claims and refused to disclose his illness.

Conflicting reports have emerged since Thursday from Addis Ababa and Brussels with some indicating that Meles Zenawi might have blood cancer.

Meles Zenawi, who received much of his training in Somalia under the former dictator Mohamed Siad Bare has ruled Ethiopia for two decades with an iron-fist.

The prime minister, loved by many and hated by millions, is no where to be found and it is not clear whether he will return to continue his legacy in the African nation. Some have suggested that his wife Azeb Mesfin might replace him.

SOURCE: Somalilandpress

Short URL: http://www.somalpost.com/?p=2687

Posted by admin on Jul 22 2012. Filed under SOMALI NEWS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry