22 Facts About Debretsion Gebremichael

Debretsion Gebremichael is an Ethiopian politician serving as the chairman of Tigray People's Liberation Front.

Debretsion Gebremichael was previously the president of the Tigray Region.

From July 2021 to March 2023, Debretsion again led the Tigray Region, while Abraham Belay left the transitional government to become Ethiopia's minister of Defence.

Debretsion Gebremichael was born and raised in the town of Axum in Tigray.

Debretsion Gebremichael gave up his engineering studies at Addis Ababa University to join the TPLF in the 1970s and fight the Derg military junta.

Debretsion Gebremichael was sent to Italy on a false passport and received training in communications technology and led the team that launched the Dimtsi Woyane radio station in 1980.

Debretsion Gebremichael earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering from Addis Ababa University.

Debretsion Gebremichael received a PhD in information technology from Capella University in 2011.

Debretsion Gebremichael's dissertation was on "Exploring the Perception of Users of Community ICT Centers on the Effectiveness of ICT on Poverty in Ethiopia".

Debretsion Gebremichael is an avid tennis player in his free time.

In 2005, Debretsion Gebremichael was appointed director of the Ethiopian Information and Communication Development Agency.

In 2012, Debretsion Gebremichael was appointed the federal Minister of Communications and Information Technology.

In 2012, Debretsion Gebremichael announced that a $1.6 billion deal had been reached with Huawei, Ericsson and ZTE to significantly expand the capacity of Ethiopia's communication infrastructure.

Debretsion Gebremichael was appointed as deputy prime minister for finance and economic clusters in 2012.

In 2015, Debretsion Gebremichael helped to launch a free trade zone with Sudan.

Debretsion Gebremichael was the board chair of Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation.

In November 2017, Debretsion Gebremichael was elected chairman of the TPLF.

Debretsion Gebremichael's rise within the party was largely facilitated by the fact that he was viewed as a younger figure when compared to the high-ranking figures that had led the TPLF for decades prior, as well as the perception that he was a political moderate who was less committed to Tigrayan nationalism than his predecessors.

In June 2021, after the TDF controlled Mekelle, Debretsion Gebremichael returned to the capital of Tigray, Mekelle and remains among the main political influencers of this conflict.

On 12 August, Debretsion Gebremichael declared that NEBE's decision undermined the TPLF's 50-year legacy and violated the Pretoria Peace Agreement which had ended the Tigray War during November 2022.

In March 2025, The Guardian reported that a faction of the TPLF, led by Debretsion Gebremichael, took over several offices in the Tigray regional capital of Mekelle.

The Guardian said that there are some reports suggesting that Eritrean intelligence helped Debretsion Gebremichael's faction assume power.