Se'are Mekonnen (; ; 1954 – 22 June 2019) was an Ethiopian army officer. He was the

Chief of General Staff The Chief of the General Staff (CGS) is a post in many armed forces ( militaries), the head of the military staff. List * Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (United States) * Chief of the General Staff (Abkhazia) * Chief of General Staff (Af ...

of the

Ethiopian National Defense Force The Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) ( am, የኢፌዲሪ መከላከያ ሠራዊት, Ye’īfēdērī mekelakeya šerawīt, lit=FDRE Defense Force) is the military force of Ethiopia. Civilian control of the military is carried out t ...

from 2018 until he was

assassinated Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have a ...

on 22 June 2019.

Biography

A veteran of the

Tigray People's Liberation Front The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF; ti, ህዝባዊ ወያነ ሓርነት ትግራይ, lit=Popular Struggle for the Freedom of Tigray), also called the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front, is a left-wing ethnic nationalist paramilitar ...

during the

Ethiopian Civil War The Ethiopian Civil War was a civil war in Ethiopia and present-day Eritrea, fought between the Ethiopian military junta known as the Derg and Ethiopian-Eritrean anti-government rebels from 12 September 1974 to 28 May 1991. The Derg overthre ...

, General Se'are served as head of the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) Northern Command and the military's joint education and training department. He was appointed to the

in 2018 by Prime Minister

Abiy Ahmed Abiy Ahmed Ali ( om, Abiyi Ahmed Alii; am, አብይ አሕመድ ዐሊ; born 15 August 1976) is an Ethiopian politician who has been the 4th prime minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia since 2 April 2018. He won the 2019 ...

, succeeding Samora Yunis. Despite his partisan origins in the TPLF, Se'are was known to be an astute advocate for ethic regulation,

professionalism A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and skil ...

, political neutrality of the armed forces during his tenure as Chief of General Staff, quoted in 2018 that "Ethnicity, is potent force for destruction, and must be discarded as an obstacle for building a modern army". On 22 June 2019 while responding to a coup attempt in the Amhara region along with his aide, Major General (retired) Gizae Aberra, Se'are was killed by his bodyguard according to government sources. The bodyguard who allegedly assassinated the general was treated for gunshot wounds he suffered at the time of the shoot-out, according to government sources. The widow of Se'are, Colonel Tsige Alemayehu, who was present with Se'are in their private residence, and alerted the authorities at the time the shootings took place, according to her interviews conducted by BBC and the local media OMN, dispute that despite her continuous efforts and failed attempts to reach out to the prosecutor and the Attorney General office to cooperate and testify against the suspect in the trial. She claimed she has yet to be called as a government witness. She also pledged the local and international community to support her quest for a fair trial and justice Se'are. The bodyguard on trial, Mesfin Tigabu, was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in June 2021.

References

1950s births 2019 deaths Ethiopian generals People from Tigray Region Year of birth missing Assassinated Ethiopian people Assassinated military personnel 2019 murders in Ethiopia {{Ethiopia-bio-stub