16 Facts About Sahle-Work Zewde

Sahle-Work Zewde is an Ethiopian diplomat who served as president of Ethiopia from 2018 to 2024, the first woman to hold the office.

Sahle-Work Zewde was elected as president unanimously by members of the Federal Parliamentary Assembly on 25 October 2018.

Sahle-Work Zewde is the first born out of four children.

Sahle-Work Zewde attended primary and secondary school at Lycee Guebre-Mariam in Addis Ababa, after which she studied natural science at the University of Montpellier, France.

Sahle-Work Zewde was only the second woman to be appointed an ambassador in Ethiopian history.

Sahle-Work Zewde served as the ambassador of both the communist People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and post-civil war Transitional Government of Ethiopia.

Sahle-Work Zewde later served as Ambassador to France, Permanent Representative to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and was accredited to Tunisia and Morocco from 2002 to 2006.

Sahle-Work Zewde subsequently held other high level positions including Permanent Representative of Ethiopia to the African Union and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and Director-General for African Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia.

Until 2011, Sahle-Work Zewde served as Special Representative of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Head of the United Nations Integrated Peace-building Office in the Central African Republic.

Sahle-Work Zewde was the first woman to hold the post.

Sahle-Work Zewde was the first woman to serve in the role and the fourth president since the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front coalition was elected in the newly established Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia in 1995.

At the time she was appointed, Sahle-Work Zewde was the only female head of state in Africa, and by 2021, she was one of two alongside Samia Suluhu of Tanzania.

On 25 March 2020, Sahle-Work Zewde announced on Twitter that she has pardoned more than 4,000 prisoners in a move to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ethiopia.

Sahle-Work Zewde pardoned more than 1,500 prisoners on 2 April 2020.

On 19 December 2020, Sahle-Work Zewde commuted the death sentences of former Derg officials Berhanu Bayeh and Adis Tedla to life imprisonment.

Sahle-Work Zewde demanded an end to the Tigray War between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front through "negotiations without any conditions", though she supported countering TPLF attacks "with the necessary measures".