Abay Tsehaye is the Minister of Federal Affairs of Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

. The field of work of his ministry includes police functions

Law enforcement in Ethiopia

Law enforcement in Ethiopia has been since a reorganization in October 2000, the responsibility of the national police which is overseen by the Federal Police Commission. This commission reports to the Ministry of Federal Affairs, which in turn is responsible to the parliament; however, this...

 and Addis Ababa

Addis Ababa

Addis Ababa is the capital city of Ethiopia...

 city administration.

Born at Axum

Axum

Axum or Aksum is a city in northern Ethiopia which was the original capital of the eponymous kingdom of Axum. Population 56,500 . Axum was a naval and trading power that ruled the region from ca. 400 BC into the 10th century...

, he attended high school in Mek'ele

Mek'ele

Mek'ele , also transliterated as Makale, is a city in northern Ethiopia and the capital of the Tigray Region. It is located some 650 kilometers north of the capital, Addis Ababa, at latitude and longitude with an elevation of 2084 meters above sea level...

, afterwards attended Addis Abeba University. Abay had been a student activist during his years at Haile Selassie University (now Addis Ababa University

Addis Ababa University

Addis Ababa University is a university in Ethiopia. It was originally named "University College of Addis Ababa" at its founding, then renamed for the former Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie I in 1962, receiving its current name in 1975.Although the university has six of its seven campuses within...

) in the early 1970s, being a member of the Tigrayan University Students' Association. According to Aregawi Berhe, he was one of seven students who met on 14 September 1974 at an inconspicuous cafe in the Piazza

Piazza

A piazza is a city square in Italy, Malta, along the Dalmatian coast and in surrounding regions. The term is roughly equivalent to the Spanish plaza...

 district to create the Tigrayan Peoples' Liberation Front. Abay was selected to be one of the first group to be given military training by the Eritrean People's Liberation Front

Eritrean People's Liberation Front

The Eritrean People's Liberation Front was an armed organization that fought for the independence of Eritrea from Ethiopia. It emerged in 1970 as an intellectual left-wing group that split from the Eritrean Liberation Front .-Background:...

, arriving in Asmara

Asmara

Asmara is the capital city and largest settlement in Eritrea, home to a population of around 579,000 people...

, January 1975. With Meles Zenawi

Meles Zenawi

Meles Zenawi Asres is the Prime Minister of Ethiopia. Since 1985, he has been chairman of the Tigrayan Peoples' Liberation Front , and is currently head of the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front .Meles was born in Adwa, Tigray in Northern Ethiopia, to an Ethiopian father from...

 and Sibhat Nega, Abay was one of founders of the Marxist-Leninist League of Tigray

Marxist-Leninist League of Tigray

The Marxist-Leninist League of Tigray was a semi-clandestine Hoxhaist Communist party that held a leading role in the Tigrayan Peoples' Liberation Front in the 1980s...

 in July, 1985.

Following the end of the Ethiopian Civil War

Ethiopian Civil War

The Ethiopian Civil War began on September 12, 1974 when the Marxist Derg staged a coup d'état against Emperor Haile Selassie, and lasted until the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front , a coalition of rebel groups, overthrew the government in 1991. The war overlapped other Cold War...

, Abay became Minister of Federal Affairs in 2001. Tsehaye is also an executive member of the Central Committee of the Tigrayan Peoples' Liberation Front.