Sahlework Zewde is Ethiopia’s first woman president
ADDISABABA: Ethiopia on Thursday appointed a woman to the largely ceremonial position of president for the first time, further increasing female representation in the government of Africa’s second most populous nation.
In a unanimous vote, Ethiopian lawmakers picked career diplomat Sahle-work Zewde, 68, to replace Mulatu Teshome who resigned in unclear circumstances. Ethiopia’s reformist Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed last week appointed a slimline 20-person cabinet in which half the posts are held by women.
They include defence minister Aisha Mohammed and Muferiat Kamil who leads the newly-created Ministry of Peace. “If the current change in Ethiopia is headed equally by both men and women, it can realise a prosperous Ethiopia free of religious, ethnic and gender discrimination,” Sahle-work said Thursday.
Sahle-work, who was born in the capital Addis Ababa and attended university in France, has been Ethiopia’s ambassador to France, Djibouti, Senegal and the regional bloc, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development. Just prior to her appointment as president she was the UN’S top official at the African Union. She is fluent in English and French as well as Amharic, Ethiopia’s main language. As president she is expected to serve two six-year terms. “Mulatu has shown us the way for change and hope. I call on others to heed his example,” said Sahle-work in a speech to parliament.
Political power in Ethiopia is wielded by the prime minister with the president’s role restricted to attending ceremonies. Nevertheless, SahleWork’s position carries important symbolic weight. “Government and opposition parties have to understand we are living in a common house and focus on things that unite us, not what divides us,” she said.