Hayelom Araya

Major General Hadush "Hayelom" Araya (1955–1996) is a former member of the Tigrayan Peoples' Liberation Front (TPLF), which was the leading member of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) political coalition. While fighting as a TPLF fighter, he earned the nickname Hayelom, "Overpowering" for his brave and daring acts.

He was born in Addi Nebreid in Northwestern Tigray, and although he completed high school in Adwa. After the Ethiopian revolution broke out, he joined the TPLF. As a commander of EPRDF forces, General Hayelom led his forces to northern Shewa and later marched to Addis Ababa coming out victorious in 1991. One of his most daring acts was the "Agazi Operation", which happened on the early evening of 5 February 1985: he led a squad of TPLF fighters in attacking the main prison in Mek'ele, and freed over a thousand prisoners, killed 16 prison guards and wounded 9 soldiers without losing a single man. He later become one of the military leaders in the defence force of the Transitional Government of Ethiopia.

General Hayelom was shot down point blank in a restaurant bar in Addis Ababa on 14 February 1996. An Eritrean shot and killed Hayelom, in an assassination plot planned by both the late tyrant Meles Zenawi and Eritrean dictator, Isaias Afwerki. Hayelom, who was a Tigrayan nationalist was at logger heads with Meles, an ultra Eritrean nationalist who disguised himself as a Tigrayan, and in an unprecedented way, became a leader of Ethiopia till his death in 2012. Four years prior to his death, and as a show that he is free from the murder of Hayelom, erected a statue in the latter's birthplace, Shire, in the Tigray Region.

See also

• Holeta