Ethiopia’s parliament on Thursday approved the East African country’s first female president, Sahlework Zewde, a veteran of the United Nations and the diplomatic corps.
Sahlework would be modern Ethiopia’s first female head of state, though in the country’s history there have been empresses who wielded great power.
Sahlework, 68, was previously the special representative of the United Nations secretary general to the African Union and prior to that headed up the organization’s Nairobi office with a rank of undersecretary general.
She began her diplomatic career as ambassador to Senegal in 1989 with responsibilities in neighboring African countries and later went to Djibouti before eventually serving as ambassador to France, where she had previously studied.
Among her many roles with the U.N. was head of the peacebuilding office in the Central African Republic until 2011.
