11 Facts About Aklilu Habte-Wold

Tsehafi Taezaz Aklilu Habte-Wold was an Ethiopian politician under Emperor Haile Selassie.

Aklilu Habte-Wold was foreign minister from 1947 to 1958 and prime minister from 1961 until his overthrow and execution by the Derg in 1974.

Aklilu Habte-Wold was the son of a rural Ethiopian Orthodox priest from the Bulga district of Shewa Province.

Aklilu Habte-Wold attended the French lycee in Alexandria, then afterwards studied in France.

When Ethiopia was defeated in the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, Aklilu Habte-Wold was in France with his brother Makonnen; upon the defection of the head of the Ethiopian legation to France, Blatengeta Wolde Mariyam Ayele, Aklilu was made charge d'affairs.

Aklilu Habte-Wold lived in Paris and married a French woman, Collette Valade.

Aklilu Habte-Wold lacked the capacity for political manipulation shown by his predecessor as tsahafe t'ezaz, Walda-Giyorgis, and his own brother, Makonnen.

Aklilu Habte-Wold was more of a leading functionary than a power-broker.

When student protests, military mutinies and an economic downturn caused by the oil embargo erupted in 1973 into a popular uprising against the government, calls went out for Prime Minister Aklilu Habte-Wold to be dismissed.

Meanwhile, Aklilu Habte-Wold had grown frustrated and weary of holding a position with much responsibility but no authority.

Nevertheless, Aklilu Habte-Wold persisted in his decision, although he recommended Lt.