Sahle-Work Zewde Ethiopia’s first female president

Ethiopia’s parliament today approved Sahle-Work Zewde as the
country’s new president, the first woman to hold the post.

Sahle-Work, who was born 21 February, 1950, in Addis Ababa, is
at present U.N. under secretary general and special representative
of the secretary general to the African Union.

She replaces Mulatu Teshome Wirtu, who tendered his resignation
to parliament earlier on Wednesday. Wirtu had been president since
2013.

Fitsum Arega, Chief of staff to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed
described the appointment of Sahle-Work as historic.

In a tweet today, Arega said: “In a historic move, the two
Houses have elected Ambassador Sahle-Work Zewde as the next
President of Ethiopia.

“She is the first female head of state in modern Ethiopia. A
career diplomat & senior official at the UN. She brings the right
competence & experience to the office.

“In a patriarchal society such as ours, the appointment of a
female head of state not only sets the standard for the future but
also normalises women as decision-makers in public life”.

Woyzero Sahle-Work Zewde studied natural science at the
University of Montpellier, France. She is fluent in Amharic, French
and English.

She is a veteran Ethiopian diplomat. She was once Ambassador to
Senegal, with accreditation to Mali, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau,
Gambia and Guinea, from 1989 to 1993.

From 1993 to 2002, she was Ambassador to Djibouti and Permanent
Representative to the Intergovernmental Authority on Development
(IGAD).

She later served as Ambassador to France, Permanent
Representative to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and accredited to Tunisia and
Morocco from 2002 to 2006.

Zewde served as Special Representative and Head of the United
Nations Integrated Peace Building Office in the Central African
Republic (BINUCA). Previously, she also held a number of 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.

In 2011, Zewde was appointed to the position of Director-General
of the United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON) by the United
Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. She was the first person to
hold the post at the level of Under-Secretary-General.