Zenawi's condition still unknown
PHOTO | GEORGES GOBET | AFP A view taken on July 16, 2012 shows the entrance of the Clinique Saint Luc in Brussels where Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi had been hospitalized in a "critical" state on July 18, several diplomatic sources told AFP, but the Ethiopian government denied he was unwell.
The fate of Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi remained remote on Monday following reports that he was critically ill.
Mr Meles, 57, is reported to be hospitalised at Saint Luc Hospital in Brussels according to European media.
St Luc Hospital is a centre for the treatment of blood or "haematological" cancers. Haematology is the study of blood, blood-forming organs and blood diseases.
The hospital has been tight lipped on the condition of Mr Meles.
Ethiopian embassy officials in Brussels have refused to comment as well as officials in Addis Ababa who have not disclosed the nature of his illness.
The PM’s wife, Azeb Mesfin, a lawmaker herself, has declined to talk to comment about her husband.
Mr Meles has not been seen in public for several weeks, fuelling speculation among Ethiopians and the world that something is wrong.
The government had scheduled a news conference Wednesday last week about his fate but it was cancelled without explanation.
Questions surfaced about the PM's health when he missed the nineteenth two-day African Union summit on July 15, in Addis Ababa for the first time.
The last time he was seen in public was at the G20 meeting in Mexico on June 19, 2012.
Mr Meles was born on May 8, 1955 at Adwa in northern Ethiopia.
He received elementary education at the Queen of Sheba Junior Secondary School and completed High School in 1972 at General Wingate School in Addis Ababa.
He then joined the Medical Faculty of Addis Ababa University where he studied for two years.
Mr Meles interrupted his studies in 1974 to join the Tigrai Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF).
He was elected to the Leadership of the Leadership Committee of the TPLF in 1979 and to its Executive Committee in 1983. He is chairman of both the TPLF and the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) since 1989. EPRDF is a political alliance of the four main political organisations in the country.
Upon the defeat of the military junta, Meles became president of the Transitional Government of Ethiopia and chairman of the Council of Representatives (the legislative body of the transitional government) from 1991 to 1995.
He was elected PM of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia in 1995 and re-elected for a second term in 2000.
He served as chairman of the Organisation of the African Union from June 1995 until June 1996.
He is serving as co-chairman of the Global Coalition for Africa.
He has also been actively involved in Inter Governmental Authority on Development (Igad) efforts to end the conflicts in Sudan and Somalia and Africa initiatives to seek a solution to the crises in Burundi.
In 2004, he was appointed by UK PM Tony Blair as one of the commissioners taking part in the Commission for Africa.
Mr Meles later acquired a first class degree in Business Administration from the Open University of the United Kingdom in 1995 and a masters in Economics from the Erasmus University of the Netherlands in 2004.
He is a father of three.
