ETHIOPIA: Sahle-Work becomes first female president

Ethiopian members of parliament have elected Sahle-Work Zewde as the country’s first female president. Ms Sahle-Work is an experienced diplomat who has now become Africa’s only female head of state. Her election to the ceremonial position comes a week after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed appointed a cabinet with half the posts taken up by women. […]

Ethiopian members of parliament have elected Sahle-Work Zewde as the country’s first female president.

Ms Sahle-Work is an experienced diplomat who has now become Africa’s only female head of state.

Her election to the ceremonial position comes a week after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed appointed a cabinet with half the posts taken up by women.

After being sworn in, President Sahle-Work promised to work hard to make gender equality a reality in Ethiopia.

Addressing parliament, she also pledged to promote peace: “I urge you all, to uphold our peace, in the name of a mother, who is the first to suffer from the absence of peace.’’

The new president was keen to make a point about gender equality right from the start, telling MPs that if they thought she was talking too much about women, she had only just begun.

Ms Sahle-Work was voted in after the unexpected resignation of her predecessor, Mulatu Teshome.