Tsadkan Gebretensae
| |
|---|---|
Tsadkan in the 1990s
| |
| Native name |
ጻድቃን ገብረትንሣኤ
|
| Born | c.1953 Chercher, Raya Azebo, Tigray Province, Ethiopian Empire |
| Allegiance |  TPLF (1976–1991) Ethiopia (1991–2001) Tigray Defense Forces (2020–present) |
| Service/ | Tigray People's Liberation Front Ethiopian National Defense Force Tigray Defense Forces |
| Rank | Lieutenant general |
| Battles/wars | Ethiopian Civil War Insurgency in Ogaden Eritrean–Ethiopian War Tigray War |
Tsadkan Gebretensae (Tigrinya: ጻድቃን ገብረትንሣኤ; born c.1953) is an Ethiopian former military officer. He is a Lieutenant general and member of the central command of the Tigray Defense Forces.[1][2] In 1976 Tsadkan joined Tigray People's Liberation Front, becoming one of its main commanders in the Ethiopian Civil War. Following the war, he became chief of staff of the Ethiopian National Defense Force, rebuilding the force and leading it in the Eritrean-Ethiopian War. After the start of the Tigray War in 2020, he rejoined the Tigray's military leadership. Tsadkan is widely regarded as one of Africa's best military thinkers and strategists.[3][4]
Tsadkan was born in the first half of the 1950s[a] in Chercher, Raya Azebo, Tigray Province.[1][5][6] In youth he became friends with another future Tigrayan leader Meles Zenawi, and in 1976 Tsadkan dropped out of the Addis Ababa University's biology faculty to join the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF).[1][7] At the time the TPLF was a small and nascent rebel group fighting against the communist Ethiopian government in the Ethiopian Civil War. By the late 1980s he had distinguished himself as one of the TPLF's most popular field commanders. In May 1991, he led the TPLF's troops in the successful assault on the capital Addis Ababa.[1]
After the end of the civil war in 1991, Tsadkan became general and chief of staff of the Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF), leading its rebuilding.[1][5] He led the reconstruction of the Ethiopian army, but was criticized for lack of ethnic balance when former TPLF commanders formed the core of the force. Under Tsadkan's leadership the ENDF raided an al-Qaeda base in Somalia in 1996, and provided support to rebel forces in Sudan. During the Eritrean–Ethiopian War, he insisted on driving the Ethiopian army into the Eritrean capital of Asmara, but was prevented from doing so by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. Following the end of the war disagreements within the TPLF led Meles to fire Tsadkan from his position of chief of staff in 2001.[1][6] Tsadkan later stated that his main issue of dispute with Meles was about lack of democratization in Ethiopia.[7]
Tsadkan earned a master's degree in business administration from the British Open University and one in international policy from the American George Washington University.[6]
Following his dismissal Tsadkan worked as a military advisor for the government of South Sudan and founded Raya Beer brewery and a horticulture business in Raya Azebo. He worked as a board chairperson for several companies, with 8-year tenures at both Ethiopian Shipping Lines and the Methara Sugar Factory, and from 2020 was also on the board of Lion Bank.[1][6]
Following the outbreak of war between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray Region in 2020, Tsadkan put aside his past differences with the Tigrayan political leadership and joined the Tigray Defense Forces, as part of its central military command.[1] After Tigrayan forces captured Mekelle in 2021, he was praised as the "mastermind" behind TDF recruitment successes.[8]
Alex de Waal of the World Peace Foundation describes him as "one of the finest military strategists of his generation in Africa".[1]
And the top military commanders of the T.P.L.F. remain at large. Two Western officials and one with the T.P.L.F., who were not authorized to speak publicly, identified Lt. Gen. Tsadkan Gebretensae, a former head of the Ethiopian military, as a senior rebel leader. General Tsadkan led Ethiopia into combat against Eritrea during the two countries' brutal border war between 1998 and 2000. In recent years, after retiring from the army, he ran a small brewery. Now 66, he is back in the fight with the newly formed Tigray Defense Forces, battling the Ethiopian army he once commanded.
