Monday, March 27, 2023
HomeNewsEthiopian National Defense Force Chief of Staff, assassinated Amhara region leaders laid...

Ethiopian National Defense Force Chief of Staff, assassinated Amhara region leaders laid to rest

Assassination of Ethiopian National Defense Force Chief of Staff Seare Mekonnen shocked many Ethiopians

Ethiopian National Defense Force Chief of Staff
Coffin of Ethiopian National Defense Force Chief of Staff, General Seare Mekonnen.

borkena
June 27, 2019

Ethiopian National Defense Force Chief of Staff, Seare Mekonnen, General Seare Mekonnen, and his longtime friend, Brigadier General Gezai Abera are laid to rest in Mekelle St. Gabriel Church on June 26, 2019.

Tigray region leader and Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) leaders attended the funeral ceremony.  In a blurry speech during the funeral ceremony, Debretison Gebremichal, TPLF chairman and acting president of Tigray region, said that “the patience is enough.”

The late General Seare became chief of staff about a year ago replacing Samora Younis as Abiy Ahmed’s reform measure deepens in Ethiopia.

He was shot dead on June 22, 2019, around 9: 00 P.M. local time, in his residence in the capital Addis Ababa. The government says that he was shot by his bodyguard who is now identified, according to reports by state media, as Private Mesafint Tigabu.

The government claims that the assassination is linked to what it called coup d’état in Bahir Dar, Amhara regional state which happened about three hours before the defense chief was killed.  The Bahir Dar incident left Dr. Ambachew Mekonnen, who president of the region, his advisor, Ezez Wasse and the region’s Attorney General, Migbaru Kebede, dead. Migbaru died later in hospital.

Seare engineered a major reform in the defense force and has reputation for his unflinching principle in his approach of the reform measure : ” a soldier does not have ethnicity but a country and people to die for.”

He started his career at a very young age as a rebel fighter with TPLF in the 1970 and his TPLF colleagues say that he has distinguished himself as a best military leader and war engineer strategies. However, most of his TPLF leaders viewed him as a “traitor” after was appointed as Ethiopian National Defense Force Chief of Staff – “traitor to TPLF causes which many Ethiopians understood as domination over Ethiopian politics and plundering the resources of the country.

General Seare stance on the importance of the unity of Ethiopia and a strong belief in the Ethiopian identity earned him adoration and respect from Ethiopia. 

A farewell ceremony was organized at the Millennium Hall on June 25, 2019, which was attended by high ranking military officers and government officials including Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

In a related development, Ambachew Mekonnen, Amhara region president, Ezez Wasse, an adviser to the president, and Migbaru Kebede, are laid to rest in Bahir Dar st. Gabriel church.  Deputy Prime Minister, Demeke Mekonnen, and other high ranking government officials and presidents of regional states attended the funeral.

In Lalibela,  General Asaminew Tsige, who is allegedly linked to the “coup d’etat”  as a ring leader, is laid to rest. He was given a hero’s funeral as in the cultural traditions of the region. Turnout was high and people chanted slogans that “Amhara people will not be divided.” 

Join the conversation. Like borkena on Facebook and get Ethiopian News updates regularly. As well, you may get Ethiopia News by following us on twitter @zborkena

advertisment

4 COMMENTS

  1. Selam All,

    It seems that eritrean officials were present in bahr-dar for the funeral, but not in mekelle (if i am not mistaken). If so, any explanation for that?

    erityan denakurit nayteliyan hashakikir
    •Reply•Share ›
    Avatar
    Consolation Horizon • 2 days ago • edited
    Horizon,

    Not in Mekele? You got to be kidding me. Why would any Erirean official be at the funeral of a Weyane thug? haven’t you been following the discussion that in June 2000, Seare Mekonen attempted to capture Aseb. An estimated 15,000 Ethiopians died in that futile attempt. And many Eritreans were martyred to foil the attempt. So te expect Eritrea tto honor this backstabbing thug, who got his military training in Eritrea, and his laurels because many Eritreans sacrificed their lives to bringtthe TPLF to power, is a little too much. I know you are

  2. above message is copied from eritrean website how many eritreans are pleased bcoz of the death of the general than amhara elites

  3. Eritrean zemenawi dengetiroch

    ye tiliyan ena ye isayas lole what are you doing here

    komal gered shabia

    eritreans are spying on TPLF and the rest of ethiopians here and there . Eritreans had better beg over the planet earth you donot qualify to intervene in ethiopian politics. You donot like TPLF since TPLF donot let you to take Badme and other province of TIgray ; You donoy like Gen Seare since he fought hard against you mongers.

    Just seek asylum where-ever you are, be it shere, ottawa or alaska and send money to your boss, atrocious man-eater.

    I know many eritreans entering to canada aftering deported to uganda and tanzania . thay returned to eritrea and they left their home and gains they made it thru sahara and passing other countries to renter EU and uS, their earthyly paradise, expoliting generations in various guises.

    Stay there donot meddle up!!!

  4. Very, very sad indeed! A child witnessing her dad being savagely gunned down right there at their residence? I don’t know how someone is going to come out of the shock of this magnitude. There is no question about it. This is another episode where one young countryman so aroused and angered as a consequence of persistent poisonous diatribes by beyond-repair bigots goes out in a shooting rampage. Such senseless crime should not happen again. Three other countrymen in the Amhara regions were also victims of someone blinded by uncontrolled anger as a consequence of similar and usually exaggerated claims by those blinded by bigotry. Nobody should be proud of this or justifies it. It is another savage crime. You can see such mad bigots everywhere. I don’t see many that extreme on this website but you can see them everywhere else. It seems that they were able to own many other websites. You see them how they use pejorative terms and phrases to address ethnic groups. ‘You Amhara this, you Oromo that, you Tigre this and you whatever you are that’!!! They hand them out to you like candies. When I read the filthy words they use to call others they don’t like, I begin to have questions about them if they are the products of those glorious and so-cultured people I know. I understand the objective of website editors/owners. In this Alexa rating world, sustaining commercials do not come knocking on the door if the hits are so low. The thought process could be the more outrageous and controversial comments and articles posted on a given website the more hits it generates. Just like in the good ole days(to some extents still holds true) that at trade shows the more traffic to your booth the better chance to go back to your factory with a bundle of new orders. But in this case widgets and nifty products are not for sale but sales of poisonous and destructive diatribes are allowed to go rampant. Many of these bigots are well read individuals. All I can say to them is ‘Shame on you. I wish you were not even born’.

    I am not talking about those who criticize the current regime or its leaders. Once you are holding the mantle of the regime, you are a fair game. There should not be anyone deemed untouchable. I have the right, everyone who is part of the stake holding group of people including those of us in the Diaspora have the right to put the feet of the leader and his/her officials to the fire peacefully and in civil/constructive manner, when fallacy is seen or detected. That is part of a healthy life in democratic governance. In such environment a leader and his/he administration will not pick one over the other. If I, as an Oromo, call for or promises violence during gatherings of my supporters, should be summoned by the law enforcement or the FBI of that country explain what I meant by that. I should also be reminded that there is a just law that prohibits violence and be warned for that. Otherwise failure to do so will open the door for bigots and they will spin it until it reaches at fever pitch. Then it only takes one, the one who does not possess the intellectual horse power or the naturally given sophistication to look thru what the bigots are spinning to death for him to go out on murderous spree.

    That is when I came back to a desperate call I made to the leaders of the two major religions here among us in USA, Europe and Oceania. You should pass a common edict condemning such behavior by bigots and should never allow them to use your podium to spew their lethal poison among your herds. For that old country, that gem of the colored, that place defied by both religions, the country and the only one that showed the world the two giant religion can live in peace side by side. No one should tell me about it. No foreigner should lecture me about it. I had seen and lived it. My father, uncles, kin and kits were tilling the same land with their Christian neighbors. I had seen them harvesting the bumper crop of their grinding effort together. I had seen them praising the lord together for his blessing. What more do we need to prove that. That is what bigots of our time trying to send it asunder. There should be a sense of urgency to stem this scourge seen feeding on the raw emotion and susceptible minds of the young generation. That country was given all the chances and this is it. The violence these bigots are spawning will only beget violence and violence has proved to us all that it will only be used to change faces with the mantle on the top. Dear leader! You are the last chance and it is all in your hands!!! These bigots are not men/women of The Almighty Our Creator!!! They have turned into unrepentant demons!!! They sit here in their comfy homes and dispense poisonous pills to the gullible among your flock. They should be expurgated from your houses of worship and be made irrelevant. That is how America was able to triumph over the evil bigots and still does that. Because of these bigots it feels like there are fewer devils left in hell now than before. You should be united and condemned them. A house of worship with fewer prayers is so right comparing the one full and dominated by hate mongers. Again, this is it for the old country!!! Every one of us should unite in preventing the worst. The barbarians are at the gate salivating at the possibilities of its demise. Mankind CAN NOT AFFORD TO LOSE THAT HOLY PLACE!!!!

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here