Ethiopian lawmakers on Monday chose Foreign Minister Taye Atske Selassie as the country’s new president — a largely ceremonial role — leaving Africa with only one female head of state.
Atske Selassie replaced Sahle-Work Zewde, 74, a respected former diplomat who had served as president since 2018.
That leaves Tanzania as the only African country with a woman as president, Samia Suluhu Hassan.
Sahle-Work took on the presidency shortly after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s rise to power in 2018.
Her appointment helped burnish Abiy’s credentials with Western governments, along with his economic reforms, the appointment of a gender-equal cabinet and a peace deal with Eritrea that saw him awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
But a brutal war against rebels in the Tigray region between 2020 and 2022 and ongoing conflicts against other ethnic groups have badly damaged his international standing, leading to sanctions being imposed by the United States.
Taye, 68, becomes the fifth president since Ethiopia adopted its current constitution in 1995. He can hold the office for a maximum of two six-year terms.
He was appointed to the foreign ministry only in February and has previously served as ambassador to the United Nations and Egypt.