Ethiopia’s path to having a presidency at all is unusual. For most of its long history, the country was ruled by an emperor, and the office of “president” only came into being after Emperor Haile Selassie was overthrown by a military committee known as the Derg in 1974 [1]. Since then, Ethiopia has had six people formally hold the title of president, plus several transitional figures who led the country before the office was fully established.
Ethiopia’s system also works differently from many presidential republics that readers elsewhere in Africa or Asia may be more familiar with. Since 1995, the president has been a largely ceremonial head of state chosen by parliament, while real executive power sits with the prime minister, a structure similar in principle to India’s or Bangladesh’s presidency, where the head of government rather than the head of state runs the country day to day [1].
A quick summary
| Leader | Time as head of state or president | How they left office |
|---|---|---|
| Aman Andom (acting head of state) | 1974 (63 days) | Killed during an armed confrontation with Derg soldiers |
| Mengistu Haile Mariam | 1974 to 1991 (President from 1987) | Fled into exile as rebels advanced on the capital |
| Tesfaye Gebre Kidan (acting) | 1991 (6 days) | Handed power to the incoming transitional government |
| Meles Zenawi (interim) | 1991 to 1995 | Became prime minister under the new constitution |
| Negasso Gidada | 1995 to 2001 | Retired at the end of his term |
| Girma Wolde-Giorgis | 2001 to 2013 | Retired after completing two terms |
| Mulatu Teshome | 2013 to 2018 | Resigned suddenly, before his term ended |
| Sahle-Work Zewde | 2018 to 2024 | Replaced by parliament near the end of her term |
| Taye Atske Selassie | 2024 to present | Currently serving at the time of this publication |
From empire to republic: the fall of Haile Selassie
Haile Selassie ruled Ethiopia as emperor for more than four decades before he was deposed by the Derg, a committee of military officers, in September 1974 [1]. He was placed under house arrest and died in August 1975.
A note on myth versus fact: how Haile Selassie died is genuinely disputed rather than settled history. Some accounts say he was smothered or strangled by his captors, while others report he died from complications following a medical procedure and being denied proper care. Reputable reporting on the period presents both explanations as circulating claims rather than a single proven cause, and readers should treat the exact circumstances as unresolved [11].
Aman Andom: killed within months of taking charge
Lieutenant General Aman Mikael Andom briefly served as the Derg’s acting head of state after the emperor’s removal. He clashed with hardline members of the committee, including Mengistu Haile Mariam, over the direction of the new government, and he was killed in an armed confrontation with Derg soldiers at his residence in November 1974 [1]. He was not, as some casual summaries suggest, someone who simply resigned. Documented sources describe his death as part of a violent power struggle within the Derg leadership.
Mengistu Haile Mariam: from military strongman to exiled convict
Mengistu Haile Mariam rose to become the Derg’s chairman and Ethiopia’s dominant leader through the late 1970s and 1980s, and he formally became the country’s first president when a new constitution created that office in September 1987 [2]. His rule included the “Red Terror” of 1977 and 1978, a violent purge of suspected political opponents in which tens of thousands of people were killed [10].
Mengistu’s presidency ended in May 1991, when rebel forces led by the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front closed in on Addis Ababa and he fled into exile in Zimbabwe [2, 10]. He has lived there ever since. In 2006, an Ethiopian court convicted him in absentia of genocide over the Red Terror killings, and in 2008 a higher court sentenced him to death, also in absentia [10]. Zimbabwe’s government has repeatedly refused to extradite him, so the sentence has never been carried out [10].
The transition years: two short-term leaders before democratic rule
After Mengistu fled, Lieutenant General Tesfaye Gebre Kidan served as acting president for six days before handing power to the incoming transitional administration [3]. Meles Zenawi, the rebel leader whose forces had toppled Mengistu, then served as interim president of the Transitional Government of Ethiopia from May 1991 until a new federal constitution took effect in August 1995 [5]. Under that constitution, Meles moved into the newly powerful role of prime minister rather than continuing as president, a role he held until his death in 2012 [5].
The Federal Republic’s ceremonial presidents
Since the 1995 constitution, Ethiopia’s president has been chosen indirectly by the Federal Parliamentary Assembly for six year terms, with the office carrying largely symbolic authority while the prime minister governs [3].
Negasso Gidada became the first president under this system in August 1995 and left office at the end of his term in October 2001 [6]. Girma Wolde-Giorgis succeeded him and served two terms, from 2001 to 2013, before retiring at the constitutional end of his tenure [1].
Mulatu Teshome took office in October 2013 but resigned suddenly in October 2018, before his term was due to end [8]. No official reason was given for the abrupt resignation, and it came during a period of sweeping political change under new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who was reshaping the government at the time [8]. Because no detailed public explanation was ever issued, specific claims about exactly why Mulatu resigned should be treated as informed speculation rather than confirmed fact.
Sahle-Work Zewde, a career diplomat, was then appointed and became Ethiopia’s first female president in October 2018 [8]. She served until October 2024, when parliament replaced her with Taye Atske Selassie, a move reported at the time to follow a falling out between Sahle-Work and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed over her public criticism of the government’s handling of ethnic conflict in the country [9]. She did not seek to contest the move publicly and left office when her replacement was sworn in.
Taye Atske Selassie: the current president
Taye Atske Selassie, a former foreign minister and career diplomat, was sworn in as Ethiopia’s sixth president on 7 October 2024 [10]. He remains in office as of this writing. As a sitting president, there is no exit from office to report yet, and any claims about how or when his presidency might end would be speculation rather than documented fact.
What Ethiopia’s record shows in a wider context
Ethiopia’s transition from an ancient monarchy to a modern republic followed a path familiar from other parts of the world, where military takeovers of hereditary or long-standing rule, such as the 1973 overthrow of Afghanistan’s monarchy or the 1979 Iranian revolution against the Shah, opened the door to new and often unstable systems of government. What followed in Ethiopia, a military dictatorship giving way eventually to a constitutional system with a ceremonial president, also mirrors patterns seen in other post-conflict states across Africa and Asia that adopted a parliamentary model to separate ceremonial and executive power.
Ethiopia’s more recent presidential transitions, a sudden unexplained resignation and a president replaced amid reported friction with the prime minister, also illustrate a broader point relevant well beyond Ethiopia. Even where a head of state’s powers are mostly symbolic, the manner of their exit can still reveal underlying political tension that a country’s formal constitutional structure does not fully capture.
Disclaimer: This article relies on publicly available historical and news sources current as of 2026. Readers are welcome to contact us with feedback or corrections if any detail here needs updating.
- [1] List of presidents of Ethiopia, Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_presidents_of_Ethiopia
- [2] Mengistu Haile Mariam, Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mengistu_Haile_Mariam
- [3] Tesfaye Gebre Kidan, Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesfaye_Gebre_Kidan
- [5] Meles Zenawi, Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meles_Zenawi
- [6] Negasso Gidada, Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negasso_Gidada
- [8] Sahle-Work Zewde, Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahle-Work_Zewde
- [9] Ethiopia’s president Sahle-Work Zewde ousted by parliament, Semafor — https://www.semafor.com/article/10/07/2024/ethiopia-president-sahle-work-zewde-ousted-by-parliament
- [10] Taye Atske Selassie, Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taye_Atske_Selassie
- [11] Ethiopia’s Mengistu convicted of genocide after 12-year trial, Reuters coverage via Sudan Tribune — https://sudantribune.com/?p=19670
