As Ethiopia observed a national day of mourning following what the Prime Minister’s office called an attempted regional coup in one of its regions, questions remain about the alleged mastermind of the attack and his motives.
On Monday, state media announced that Brigadier General Asaminew Tsige was captured and killed in Zenzelima in the country’s Amhara region. Security forces shot the general dead as he tried to escape, state media reported.
Brig. Gen. Asaminew is well known in the country. He had a strong following among the Amhara ethnic group and had been serving as head of the Peace and Security Bureau of the Amhara region in the country’s north.
The Ethiopian federal government has accused him of plotting attacks that killed the president of Amhara state, an adviser and the state attorney general in the regional capital, Bahir Dar, on Saturday.
In a separate, but related attack according to the Prime Minister’s office, Ethiopia’s Army Chief of Staff Seare Mekonnen was killed by his bodyguard in Addis Ababa, 500 kilometers away.
በወቅታዊ ሁኔታዎች ላይ የተሰጠ ዝርዝር ጋዜጣዊ መግለጫ::
Press release regarding current issues.
Zecharias said these events indicate something that goes beyond the work of one renegade general. “It points to something far, far larger, far greater than just a plot to take over the Amhara region,” he said. “But of course as I repeated several times now it would be speculation to guess what that could be.”