Former Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin, one of the officials targeted by arrest warrants alongside other leaders of the Tigray region’s ruling party following the military operation there was reportedly killed by security forces on Wednesday.
Seyoum Mesfin had served for more than two decades at the helm of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as foreign minister from 1991 to 2010 and Ethiopian ambassador to China from 2010 to 2018.
Born as Ambaye Mesfin on January 25, 1949, in Azeba, Agame district of Tigray, he would later change his name to Seyoum as nom de guerre. He attended his primary education at Agazi School in Adigrat. He completed high school in 1967 and earned a diploma in chemistry from Bahir Dar Polytechnic Institute in1971. Seyoum joined the then Haile Selassie I University in 1972 where he studied chemistry and physics until 1974. He was one of the seven Tigrayn students who formed the Association of Progressive of the Tigray Nation- which was later shortened to the Tigrayan National Organization.
After the Derg seized power, Seyoum dropped out of the university in the fourth year and in 1975 he slipped out of Addis Ababa to join a secretly formed Tigrayan political party, the Tigray Liberation Front (TPLF), switched from the association formed at the University. He was sent to the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) for military training in the same year.
Seyoum had been the TPLF’s foreign relations office head since 1979 and had operated from his base in Sudan for 15 years. It is said that during his stay in Khartoum, his surname was changed to ‘Musa’.
In 1989, he became an executive committee member of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Party (EPRDF) and received the foreign affairs portfolio. After participating in the London Peace Conference in 1991 alongside Meles Zenawi and Berhane Gebre-Christos, Seyoum returned to Addis Ababa and assumed responsibility for foreign affairs in the Transitional Government of Ethiopia.
After the overthrow of the Derg, Seyoum traveled to Addis Ababa in an aircraft offered to him by the then Sudanese president Omar Al-Bashir. The aircraft had a technical problem and Seyoum feared he would die without seeing the fruit of his 17 years struggle but the aircraft managed to land safely in Addis, he recalled in an interview.
In the May 1995 general elections, Seyoum won a seat to the House of Peoples ‘ Representatives in Tigray Region in the fifth position behind Meles Zenawi, Tewolde Wolde Mariam, and Alemseged Gebre Amlak, and Sebhat Nega.
Seyoum Mesfin had been one of TPLF’s stalwarts since the TPLF- led coalition, the EPRDF took control of the country. When a split occurred in March 2001 in the TPLF, following the outbreak of a border war with Eritrea in May 1998, Seyoum was one of the central figures who rallied behind Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
In March 2003 an independent boundary commission officially awarded the disputed town of Badme to Eritrea, but Seyoum held a press conference, alleging that all the Ethiopian government’s territorial demands had been met and Badme regained, contradicting the commission’s statement. This had tarnished his credibility and this charge that had been used against him by critics for many years to come.
Seyoum’s efforts to conclude a peace agreement during the Ethiopia-Eritrea war and his mediation to the Eritrea –Yemen border dispute in 1995 had largely been unsuccessful. So was his attempt to restore peace to Somalia in 1997 by facilitating the signing of the Sodere agreement between 26 Somali faction leaders.
Seyoum was also accused by his political opponents of the role he played in gross human rights violations perpetrated within the ruling EPRDF in which TPLF played the dominant role.
After Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power, Seyoum continued serving in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in his role advisor within the Prime Minister’s Office until 2019. However, he resigned and went to Mekele reportedly unhappy with his post.
When tensions between the federal government and the TPLF escalated, Seyoum had repeatedly criticized Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. In one interview, he even said that the Nobel committee was considering rescinding the prize it has awarded to Abiy Ahmed. However, the committee said that there was no provision in the Nobel statutes for rescinding the prize once it has been awarded.
Seyoum and other senior TPLF leaders remained in the Tigray capital, Mekele until the Ethiopian army captured the city but later it was reported that they fled to the mountains of the region. The federal authorities a few weeks ago offered a reward in exchange for information that could help locate leaders and on Wednesday, three TPLF officials, including Seyoum, were killed, and five other party members were captured, after they refused to surrender to the military, the government said.
(Main pic: Seyoum Mesfin with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.)
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Siyume’s party, TPLF, did the most harm to Ethiopia. TPLF faught fiercely to make Ethiopia landlocked for the reasons only Soyum and his comrades-in-crime know. Soyum was one of key politicians who pushed false narratives against Amhara, causing the massacre and displacement of millions of Amharas for a generation. His government killed, tortured and incarcerated political opponents under trumped up charges. The hatred and mistrust Seyum and his friends sowed deliberately are the causes of the constant genocide perpetrated in Ethiopia. His leadership left a destitute country with trillions of debts. His party made nepotism, discrimination and corruption acceptable. His party spent trillions of aid money to pay lobbyists, apologists and and mercenary journalists and politicians to cover up their crimes and build false images while millions starved to death. In brief, Ethiopia couldn’t have worse leadership.
Your description is spot on. Nothing to add hope he burns in hell. I am hopeful Ethiopia will never be under such brutal gang which nearly destroyed such ancient and beautiful country.
Seyoum Mesfin was to the end fulminating about losing control and declaring only Tplf’s return to power could avert “state collapse!” https://youtu.be/NX-Z1Y9wIEA?t=7
That Seyoum in person and Tplf as an organization are accused of gross human rights violations is no secret. Seyoum held prominent position in Ethiopian affairs of the past three decades. Never was he or for that matter many Tplf members competent in their tasks. For Tplf members the main goal has been to advance political and financial interests of their organization by all means necessary. Seyoum served as foreign minister without the requisite qualification! Tplf had to hire a British adviser for a quarter of a million dollars per annum and then retain DL Piper (where Kamala Harris’s husband Doug Emhoff was partner) for half a million dollars a month!
Seyoum of course was grossly incompetent, as were Tedros Adhanom after him. As the 2002 Arbitration following the 1998-2000 Badme clashes showed Seyoum was not conversant in legalese or diplomatic nuances. He declared the arbitration was ”… a victory of peace over aggression and violence … a victory of law over the rule of the jungle… Ethiopia accepts the ruling, …Ethiopia is satisfied. We hope that the decision will once and for all seal any attempt by military adventurers to change the boundary by means of force.” The same happened in his role at IGAD. He went on to chair the Board of Ethiopian Airlines. He pushed out into retirement Girma Wakke (the guy who brought back the Airline from certain disaster) to replace him with the current CEO Tewolde (not because Tewolde was competent but because Tewold is Tigrayan and could advance Tplf interests; Tewolde went on to populate nearly 30% of Airline workforce with Tigrayans! Tigrayans are less than 6% of 100 million pop.). Seyoum then was sent as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to China! Why? In order to “develop” Tigray and scurry away $$$! Now that role is left in the hands of Berhane Gebrekristos (who was sacked by PM Abiy but who chose to remain in Shanghai! Can you imagine how a fellow could live lavishly in one of the most expensive cities in the world?!).
Tedros Adhanom of course never was a diplomat when he became foreign minister (2012-2016). His only experience in foreign affairs was, as I had said elsewhere, a five-year stay in the UK as a student at Nottingham U! The point of Tplf appointments was essentially the advancement of Tplf interests (as opposed to the nation’s). It was during Tedros’s tenure that the British-Ethiopian opposition leader Andargachew Tsige was abducted while in transit in Yemen and kept 4 years in solitary confinement! There is ample evidence that Tedros was involved. Remember Tplf sent agents and the plane to scoop Andargachew! Tedros then went on to become WHO DG (he was the sole candidate and better qualified Ethiopians were not given the opportunity to even apply; Bill Gates also was behind all this drama!) True to color Tedros’s first act at WHO was to appoint dictator Mugabe as Goodwill Ambassador! That bizarre act was followed with a universal outcry which led to reversal of the decision. No one asked the one question as to why Tedros would go for Mugabe. The answer? Tplf had been seeking extradition of Mengistu Hailemariam for two decades and now Tedros could deliver to his comrades by “bribing” Mugabe with an international honor. That is, using the good offices of WHO Tedros was once again busy advancing his party’s plan! He did it again when he showed leniency toward China following the novel virus! Of course another reversal!
Interesting aside. One of the fiercest Tplf apologist is Alex de Waal at Tufts World Peace Foundation. Google and you will discover he has been busy creating a narrative to salvage his favorite band of criminals-cum-liberators! In his latest salvo Alex went further to compare Seyoum Mesfin with PM Aklilu Habtewold! Think about this for a minute. Alex is supposedly the “expert” in Horn affairs and yet he thinks the world is this dumb to take him at his word! Alex of course is the founding board member of Meles Zenawi Foundation (essentially a money-laundering outfit)! I have said it elsewhere and I repeat it here that Alex de Waal should declare publicly that he has not received “gifts” from Tplf (especially from Meles Zenawi’s wife, “queen of corruption”, for her infamous gifts in cash and precious metals to struggling reporters and diplomats, embassy workers, etc). Ethiopian academes should lodge a letter of complaint to Tufts U (not for Alex’s opinions for that his prerogative) but for abusing his office to promote interests of a violent group; that is, a Tplf that has mowed down hundreds of young protestors with tanks and heli gunship in the 2015 popular uprising!; for the massacre at Mai-Kadra most recently as a prelude to the current mop up by federal forces; a Tplf that decimated 80,000 young lives for no purpose in the 1998-2000 border clashes with Eritrea; a Tplf that stole $11 billions in a decade of aid money; a Tplf that turned into a money-laundering ring and trafficked in drugs and young women! Alex de Waal must resign as exec director if Tufts cared about its name as an institution!
Interesting that Alex de Waal would know this much about what went on in Tigray in the past month or so when all communications are down. For instance, Alex made a statement that Isaias Afewerki was involved in assassinating Seyoum Mesfin. The first question is this, How is it possible for Alex who has no clue about Ethiopian culture or language to sit in Massachusetts to figure out all this? The answer? Alex along with his Tplf comrades had several years ago brought on board at Peace Foundation Tplf members (Mulugeta Gebrehiwot Berhe and others of his comrades). In others words, Alex the “expert” is taking dictation from his comrades to develop a narrative that is both false and dangerous! All this using fronting as World Peace Foundation director! It simply is not ethical or transparent.
Seyoum is no Aklilu. Ethiopia’s federal government is after criminals that should have faced justice years ago. No nation would sit back and watch as its polity is torn apart. Ethiopians of every stripe are done away with Tplf and view that part of their history with great sorrow. Tplf’s end has finally come! The people Ethiopia have no problem with their Tigrayan or Oromo or Amhara or Somali brothers and sisters! The problem of weaponizing ethnics is primarily the result of Tplf policy. The reason for that policy choice is that Tplf never represented all Tigrayans and Tigrayans as a population constituted a little over 5% of the 100+ million population. Tplf had divided up the nation into 9 ethnic enclaves. In the process, it had expanded its own borders west to Sudan and northern Wollo. It evicted and terrorized residents and bussed in Tigrayans in the early 1990s! Accordingly, every group, except TPlf, was forced to reside and do business in its allotted region. That was the root of a resentment that finally booted Tplf from playing a central role and sent it to Mekelle with its tails behind its political and financial legs! From its Mekelle hideout Tplf rained constant flashpoints in the rest of the country. This included assassinations and robberies and 24/7 disinformation campaign through its organized “digital woyane” that run hundreds of social media accounts. At one point it even succeeded to deceive the BBC by presenting a photo-shopped incident (still at it). Fortunately, BBC discovered what had happened soon enough and to report it!