Meles Zenawi (1955– )

Ethiopian politician and former guerrilla fighter, prime minister from 1995. He was the leader of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) which overthrew the regime of Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991, and was president of the interim administration 1991–95. It was under Meles Zenawi that Eritrea, whose rebel movement had also fought to overthrow Mengistu, was allowed to opt for independence in 1993. He also allowed development of a multiparty political system, based on ethnic federalism. Between 1998–2000 war broke out with Eritrea and in 2001 he survived a power struggle within his party.

Meles Zenawi was born in Adua in the north of the country to a Tigrean father and an Eritrean mother. He studied medicine at Addis Ababa University, but left in 1974 to join the left-wing Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) at the start of an armed struggle against the military government.