Borkena News Desk
Toronto, Canada — Semere Russom, who served as Eritrea’s Ambassador to Ethiopia between 2018-2025, dies.
Eritrea’s Ministry of Information on Wednesday disclosed that he was 83 and is survived by his spouse and five children. Funeral service is planned for Friday July 24, at 10 a.m. local time at the Asmara Martyrs Cemetery.
The medical condition that led to his death is unspecified.
According to the Ministry, Semere Russom joined the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF), which later rebranded itself as People’s Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ) after Eritrea’s secession from Ethiopia, in 1976.
He has served in different capacities including as Head of Intelligence Services at the EPLF office in Khartoum, Sudan. As well, he has served as Minister for Education, Director General of American Desk at the Foreign Office and Eritrea’s Ambassador to the United States, among other roles.
When Ethiopia and Eritrea ended over two decades of no-peace-no-war relation in 2018 after the now defunct Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRFP) picked Abiy Ahmed to serve as Prime Minister as Hailemariam Desalegne resigned, Eritrea appointed Semere to serve as Eritrea’s Ambassador to Ethiopia. He served in that capacity until 2025 – a year during which the relation between the two countries further deteriorated.
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