Former Ethiopian President Girma Wodegiorgis dies at 94

By Addis Getachew

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia

Ethiopian former President Girma Wodegiorgis has died of natural causes at the age of 94 on late Friday, local state broadcaster reported.

Grima was under medical care at the Defense Forces Hospital in the capital Addis Ababa.

He was second president from 2001-2013 after the formation in 1995 of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.

Born in capital Addis Ababa in 1923, Girma was a staunch environmentalist, who founded a local environmental protection association Lem Ethiopia in 1991.

Girma is credited for not signing any order for executions of death row prisoners.