Abay Tsehaye

This article is about a person whose name includes a patronymic. The article properly refers to the person by his given name, Abay, and not as Tsehaye.

Abay Tsehaye
ኣባይ ፀሓየ
Executive Member of the Central Committee of the TPLF
In office 2001–2018
Personal details
Born	29 April 1953 Aksum, Tigray Province, Ethiopia
Died	13 January 2021(2021-01-13) (aged 67)
Cause of death	Gunshot wounds by ENDF
Political party	EPRDF
Other political affiliations	TPLF
Children	Hayet Abay, Aron Abay

Abay "Amha" Tsehaye (Template:Lang-ti; 29 April 1953 – 13 January 2021) was an Ethiopian politician and a prominent personality in the Ethiopian political discourse. He was active in the political scene from the early 1960s up to late 2018, initially as one of the founding members of the TPLF (from inception to 1990), followed by important positions from 1990 to 2018 within the EPRDF, which led the Ethiopian government, after which he retired and moved to live in Axum and Mekelle in Tigray.

Life

Abay was born on 29 April 1953, in Axum, Tigray. He attended high school in Mekelle, the capital city of Tigray, which had modern schools at the time. He attended college-level education at the Addis Ababa University (AAU) (then called Haile Selassie I University). Aside from his academic work, he had an eye on activism, stemming from the difficulties he encountered as a Tigrayan.

Abay was a student activist while enrolled in Haile Selassie I University in the early 1970s as a member of the Tigrayan University Students' Association. He was always passionate when talking about the systemic injustices imposed by the Ethiopian state on the people of Tigray. He was one of many Tigrayans attending AAU who took up the cause of disenfranchised people and particularly Tigrayans.

Abay discovered that Ethiopians are not free if they cannot overcome the feudal state and the unjust arrangement which had them in a bind. He became a founding member of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) with approximately 12 students. Abay was selected to be one of the first TPLF members to be given military training by the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) and he arrived in Asmara in January 1975 after changing his name from "Amha" to Abay.

With Meles Zenawi and Sibhat Nega, Abay was one of the founders of the TPLF in July 1985. Following the end of the Ethiopian Civil War and the fall of the Dergue Regime, Abay became Minister of Federal Affairs in 2001. Abay was also an executive member of the Central Committee of the TPLF for a large part of his political career.

Death

According to the Ethiopian government, Abay went missing in action in the ongoing Tigray War by the Ethiopian National Defence Forces under the command of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on 13 January 2021.

Two other Tigray People's Liberation Front officials were killed with him. Ethiopia alleged that the group refused to surrender. Five further officials were captured.

Abay Tsahaye had heart surgery before the war. Their families and the TPLF have since said the three were taken from their homes in Mekelle and executed by the Eritrean and Ethiopian military. The pictures published by Ethiopian authorities indicate a point-blank execution of the former ministers and MPs (citation needed).

All of the above cannot be confirmed, is missing citation and clearly biased and simply untrue.

Abay was part of the criminal organization TPLF, which +100M Ethiopians endorse the offensive against during the current conflict in northern Ethiopia. TPLF And it’s founding and leading members have according to human rights watch and amnesty been committing Human rights abuses for decades. They have led Ethiopia with a hard authoritarian line, which ultimately led to their withdrawal from government in 2018 after increasing pressure from the population. The atrocities that the TPLF has committed against the Ethiopian people are countless and can be found via a simple ‘google search’ no sources needed.

The digital armada of TPLF sympathizers who are being funded by the money looted from ordinary poor Ethiopians, are trying to deceive and disinform YOU - the international community who as ordinary Ethiopians are not aware of our history. If you ask one Of the +100M Ethiopians living outside of the Tigray region, they will tell you the truth - that TPLF is nothing but a mafia clique, which has been torturing and exploiting the Ethiopian people for decades.