Our Team

Abdeta’s professional experience begins with his employment at Ethiopia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1992. This experience included serving as desk officer for Somalia and Ethiopia’s neighboring states, as Political officer at the Ethiopian Embassy in Djibouti, as Head of the Ethiopian Trade office in Hargeisa (April 2002-June 2006), Chief of the Cabinet at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (July 2006-August2008), Ethiopia’s Special Envoy to Somalia (August 2008-March 2009), and Head of the Conflict Early Warning and Response Unit (April 2009-November 2010), and Director General for African Affairs until 2012. He also served as Chief of Staff of the IGAD-led Mediation Team to resolve the crisis in the Republic of South Sudan and briefly for the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission to oversee the implementation of the Agreement to Resolve the Conflict in South Sudan. He is currently the Executive Director of the Centre for Dialogue, Research and Cooperation and holds a PhD from Northwestern University.