Pro-democratic movements in Somaliland send a condolences to Ethiopian Government for the death of Ambassador Birhanu Dinka

Pro-democratic movements in Somaliland are shocked the death of Ambassador Birhanu Dinka, a veteran Ethiopian diplomat who passed away on 8 July 2013 in New York, and we expresses our deepest condolences to Ethiopian Government particular the staff and officials of Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well his family and friends.

late Ambassador Birhanu Dinka

Abaot late Ambassador Birhanu Dinka

The late Ambassador Birhanu, a career diplomat, also worked for the United Nations and the African Union.

Most recently he was a member of the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) in Kenya. The Commission was established with the objective of promoting peace, justice, national unity, healing, reconciliation and dignity among the people of Kenya in the aftermath of post 2007 election violence. Fellow Commissioners said: "He chaired our report-writing committee, and returned to Kenya - while convalescing - to guide the process to the very end. He gave the TJRC process his very best".

The late Ambassador Birhanu Dinka served his country for 27 years, in the Ethiopian embassies in Monrovia, Cairo and Washington, D.C., before becoming an ambassador in 1975 and heading the Department of Africa and Middle East Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was the first Ethiopian ambassador to the Republic of Djibouti (1980-84) and then Permanent Representative to the UN in New York with concurrent accreditation to Canada. In 1992 he moved to the UN and served in Cambodia, South Africa and Somalia.

He assisted in the Abuja talks on the conflict in Darfur when requested by the African Union, chairing the Power-Sharing Commission until the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) was concluded in Abuja in March 2006.