ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia
Ethiopia on Tuesday bade farewell to two military leaders killed on Saturday just after a defeated attempt to overthrow a state government.
A solemn procession of brass band and motorcade brought the bodies of Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Sea’re Mokonnen and retired Maj. Gen. Geza’e Aberra, his confidant, to Millennium Hall in the capital Addis Ababa, where a state farewell was organized before their bodies were flown to Tigray, their home region, for burial.
The farewell ceremony brought together a huge gathering of high-ranking military officers and top government officials, including President Sahle-work Zewde and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
Sea’re, 57, is survived by a son and a daughter.
The generals were shot dead by Sea’re’s bodyguard at his own home in Addis Ababa late on Saturday just hours after an attempt to overthrow the Amhara state government in the city of Bahir Dar, 500 kilometers northwest of the capital, was foiled.
Sea’re was organizing and leading efforts to bring the Bahir Dar insurrection under control, said Abiy, adding that the events of Bahir Dar and the general’s killing in Addis Ababa were closely linked.
In Bahir Dar on Saturday afternoon, a group of armed men barged in an administrative office and killed Ambachew Mekonnen, head of the Amhara state government, and his adviser Ezez Wase, and wounded Migbaru Kebede, attorney general of the region, who later succumbed to his wounds.
Brig. Gen. Asaminew Tsige, the security bureau head of the Amhara state government, is said to have perpetrated both attacks. Asaminew was killed on Monday in a shootout while “trying to flee” Bahir Dar.
Sea’re was one of the combatants during the 17-year long struggle against the military rule of Col. Mengistu Hailemariam, whose iron grip to power ended in 1991 as the guerilla fighters were about to enter Addis Ababa.
