Obituary: Reuters journalist Tsegaye Tadesse had front-row seat to Ethiopian history

An avuncular presence, easily recognisable with his trademark pipes and fedora hats, Tsegaye covered every aspect of Ethiopian news: from the imperial splendour of Emperor Haile Selassie through the brutal rule of the communist Derg regime and the ruinous famine of the 1980s.

But, though he enjoyed the classroom and dedicated himself to it, the voracious reader and news junkie harboured the ambition to become a journalist.He built a name for himself as a writer with an enviable command of the English language, eventually becoming the state newspaper's first ever parliamentary correspondent.

Funny and charming, he could talk his way into almost anywhere and used that gift to access government buildings, VIP lounges, palaces and anywhere else he could dig up a story.Early on the morning of May 22, 1991, acting on a tip, Tsegaye set off for Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa. A year later he was on the scene as the body of former Emperor Haile Selassie was exhumed from its burial place under a toilet in his former palace.

To those who visited Addis Ababa during Tsegaye's decades as a correspondent, he was a welcoming and encyclopaedic presence, quick to offer wisdom on everything from Ethiopian politics and history to the best place to get a good whiskey.

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