ADDIS ABABA (Semonegna)– Engineer Simegnew Bekele, the Project Manager of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), has laid to rest today at the Holy Trinity Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Cathedral Church in Addis Ababa.
Thousands of people including President Mulatu Teshome, Deputy Prime Minister Demeke Mekonnen and Speaker of the House of Peoples’ Representatives Muferiat Kamil attended the funeral to pay their respects. Many of the funeral attendants were mourning and couldn’t hold up their grief as Engineer Simegnew was laid to rest.
Engineer Simegnew was founded dead in his car in Meskel Square, the center of Addis Ababa, on Thursday.
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The Federal Police is investigating expansively the conditions of his death. According to Zeynu Jemal, Commissioner General of the Federal Police Commission, Engineer Simegnew died due to gunshot wounds behind his right ear. Ato Zeynu told journalists on Thursday afternoon that police have gathered all the necessary evidence and were conducting forensic investigations.
Engineer Simegnew Bekele, a civil engineering graduate from Addis Ababa University, has been project manager/lead engineer of GERD since the construction began in April 2011. Before GERD, he worked as lead engineer on Gilgel Gibe I and Gilgel Gibe II dam projects, which were completed in February 2004 and December 2010, respectively.
He was born in September 1964 in North Gondar Zone of Amhara Regional State and is survived by his wife, a daughter, two sons and his father.