Tesfaye Dinka Yadessa was Minister of Foreign Affairs (1989–1991), and acting Prime Minister (26 April - 6 June 1991) of Ethiopia.
Born in Ambo, Tesfaye is an ethnic Oromo. He attended high school in Ambo.
He was a leading member of the regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam and alternate member of the Politburo of the Workers' Party of Ethiopia. Prior to his appointment as Prime Minister, Tesfaye served in various ministerial posts, successively Minister of Agriculture, Finance, Industry; he also served as Deputy Prime Minister of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia from 10 September 1987.He was the member of Mengistu’s civilian inner circle with no blood on his hand. He was a technocrat and has no say on Mengistu’s monumental decision such as the infamous collectivization program of the mid-80s which uprooted thousands peasants from the northern part of the country and resettled them in the southern and western part of Ethiopia. Tesfaye Dinka is considered by many to have been a moderate and calm member of the Mengistu regime, and part of the faction of government officials who advised Mengistu to negotiate with the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF).
In the last days of Mengistu's rule, he was appointed Prime Minister. He attended the London peace conference of 27 May 1991, which was intended to broker an end to the Ethiopian Civil War. Other attendees included Isaias Afwerki who led the EPLF, Meles Zenawi the leader of the TPLF, and Lencho Letta the deputy secretary general of the Oromo Liberation Front. US Assistant Secretary of State Herman Jay Cohen served as mediator. Ostensibly, the conference was supposed to explore ways to set up a transitional government in Ethiopia, but its proceedings were soon overtaken by events. The talks had hardly gotten under way when Cohen received a message that Lieutenant General Tesfaye Gebre Kidan, acting President of Ethiopia, had lost control of the government's remaining armed units and Addis Ababa was threatened with a complete breakdown of law and order. To prevent uncontrolled destruction and looting, Cohen recommended that EPRDF forces immediately move into Addis Ababa and establish control. Although Tesfaye Dinka strenuously objected, he spoke from a position of weakness and could not prevail. He eventually walked out of the meeting, and the London conference continued the next day without him.[1]
Tesfaye worked in the 1990s for the World Bank and various UN agencies. He has lived for years in the U.S. and is now Senior Advisor to the Global Coalition for Africa, an organization dedicated to the economic development of Africa.
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