President loses his head of protocol

President loses his head of protocol

President Mulatu Teshome will have to find a new chief of protocol, since the previous incumbent Belay Girma has resigned.

After acting as head of protocol for many years, serving Presidents Negasso Gidada and Girma Wolde-Giorgis, as well as Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, Belay Girma will not do likewise for the new president, Mulatu Teshome, elected just a few months ago. To be sure, this Tigrayan, a civil servant in the foreign affairs ministry, resigned his post recently. Belay Girma is married to the radio and television journalist Birtukan Harewein who frequently accompanied Meles Zenawi in his travels and interviewed him many times.

Belay Girma’s departure would seem to suit vice PM Debretsion Gebremichael just fine. Gebremichael considered Girma a supporter of a rival wing in the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF, ruling coalition) led by Bereket Simon and Meles Zenawi’s widow Azeb Mesfin. Debretsion Gebremichael would seem to have an increasing hold on the regime’s ministers and senior civil servants, whose every move he is able to track, even in their homes and their telephone constellations, since his is the minister for telecommunication and ITC.