Girma Asmerom Tesfai (10 December 1949 – 5 October 2016) was an

Eritrea Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia ...

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

, diplomat and

football player A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

. He was the

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...

of Eritrea to the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

at the time of his death. He also previously served as ambassador to South Africa, the United States of America, the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

(2006–2011) and

African Union The African Union (AU) is a continental union consisting of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The AU was announced in the Sirte Declaration in Sirte, Libya, on 9 September 1999, calling for the establishment of the Africa ...

Career

While Eritrea being part of Ethiopia he played professional football there for Dagnew FC and ELPA in the 1960s and was member of the

Ethiopian national football team The Ethiopia national football team, nicknamed ''ዋሊያ'', after the Walia, represents Ethiopia in men's international football and is controlled by the Ethiopian Football Federation, the governing body for football in Ethiopia. The team ...

between 1968 and 1969. He participated at the

1968 Africa Cup of Nations The 1968 African Cup of Nations was the sixth edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the soccer championship of Africa (Confederation of African Football, CAF). It was hosted by Ethiopia. The field expanded to eight teams, split into two groups of ...

with the host Ethiopia, where he placed third. The very seasoned diplomat was also once a college soccer star as an undergraduate student at Bowdoin College, in Brunswick, Maine. He got his BA degree in June, 1973 where he majored in Government studies. He also was an Honor student-athlete and made the Dean's List. He was also very active on campus and was a Student Proctor between 1971 and 1972. Outside of the class room he was the winner of the George Levine Memorial Soccer Trophy award and was Bowdoin's leading goal scorer of all time until 2007 when it was broken by another player who played all 4 years. Ambassador Girma accomplished the record in 3 years. *After receiving a master's degree in the US, he went to the mountains of Nakfa, Eritrea in 1977 and joined the

EPLF The Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF), colloquially known as Shabia, was an armed Marxist–Leninist organization that fought for the independence of Eritrea from Ethiopia. It emerged in 1970 as a far-left to left-wing nationalist group ...

to fight for Independent Eritrea. *For the next 14 years, he contributed to the struggle for independence in various capacities – most notable of them all was establishing EPLF's Amharic radio program. *On April 10, 2001, he was appointed Eritrean Ambassador to the United States, where he was accredited on June 20, 2001.

Death

He died in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in the United States in 2016.

References

Eritrean diplomats 1949 births 2016 deaths Eritrean politicians Place of birth missing Permanent Representatives of Eritrea to the United Nations Ambassadors of Eritrea to the European Union Ambassadors of Eritrea to the United States Permanent Representatives to the African Union {{Eritrea-politician-stub