Thousands of mourning Ethiopians turned out Wednesday as the body of Meles Zenawi, the country’s leader for 21 years, arrived at Addis Ababa airport following his death in a Brussels hospital at the age of 57.
A military band played as the coffin, draped in the national flag, was taken from the Ethiopian Airlines flight in the early hours of the morning in a ceremony attended by political, military and religious leaders as well as diplomats.
Deputy Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, 47, who has also been foreign minister since 2010, will take over interim power, according to government officials.
Meles died on Monday night following a long illness. He had not been seen in public since the G20 summit in Mexico in June.
His death, with no anointed successor, plunges Africa’s second most populous country into a period of uncertainity and raises fears of increased insecurity across a volatile region.
His wife, Azeb Mesfin, was seen leaving the plane dressed in black.
The coffin was taken to the prime minister’s official residence at the national palace, where Meles’s body will lie in state until the funeral, said national television, which broadcast live footage from Addis Ababa streets as the coffin passed slowly.
Ethiopia has declared a state of national mourning, but no date for the funeral has been set.
Meles, a regional strongman in the volatile Horn of Africa, was a former rebel who ruled with an iron fist for more than two decades.
He came to power in 1991 after toppling the brutal dictatorship of Mengistu Haile Mariam, set Ethiopia on a path of rapid growth and played a key role in mediating regional conflicts, but also drew criticism for cracking down on opponents and curtailing human rights.
US President Barack Obama led tributes to Meles, who he said deserved “recognition for his lifelong contribution to Ethiopia’s development”, while UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon hailed Meles’s “exceptional leadership”.
Meles was a key Western ally in a region home to al-Qaeda-linked groups.
However, rights groups said his death offered a chance to end a brutal crackdown on basic freedoms.
Meles was regularly singled out as one of the continent’s worst human rights predators, and Amnesty International called on the country’s new leaders to end his government’s “ever-increasing repression”.
Human Rights Watch called for the next administration to repeal a much-criticised 2009 anti-terrorism law, under which several opposition figures and journalists, including two Swedes, have been jailed for lengthy terms.
Diplomats and analysts in Addis Ababa say it is unclear how the government has been run since Meles was reported to have been hospitalised in June.
AFP