ADDIS ABABA: United States President Barack Obama announced the White House would send a Presidential Delegation to Ethiopia to attend the state funeral of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. Obama himself will not be in attendance. The US Permanent Representative to the United Nations Susan E. Rice will lead the delegation on September 2, the White House said in a statement. Also to be present for the funeral are US Ambassador to Ethiopia Donald Booth, Johnnie Carson, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs and Gayle Smith, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director, National Security Staff. Zenawi was born on May 8, 1955 and came to power in the early 1990s as prime minister, holding this position until Tuesday. He ruled the country with an iron grip, and the past few months has shown his strength over the country was not one that all Ethiopians enjoyed. According to Opride.com, “the former rebel-leader dropped out of Addis Ababa University's Medical School, where he studied for two years, to join the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front in 1974. He has been the chairman of both the TPLF and the ruling coalition, Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front, since 1989." Meles died on August 20 just before midnight after contracting an infection, state TV announced. Hailemariam Desalegn, who was appointed deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs in 2010, is now in charge of the Cabinet, state TV said. Already, there is a sense of uncertainty in the country over the death, and questions surrounding the future of Ethiopia continue. “I just don't know what to think right now," one Addis Ababa resident told Bikyamasr.com as citizen took to watching the television together in order to gain any new information on their leader's passing.
