In an article published on Tuesday, independent journalist Thomas C. Mountain said that the isolation surrounding Meles Zenawi grows almost by the day as he faces “more insurgencies, an ongoing economic crisis and calls for regime change from the religious community”.

“Hated in his ethnic homeland of Tigray, once his power base, and hated by the Amhara elite, the ethnic minority who previously ruled Ethiopia, Meles has ceded de facto control of his ministries to technocrats from the CIA and US State Department,” Mountain said.

Mountain argued that the US is desperate to keep Zenawi in power as it does not have a backup plan for Ethiopia or anyone they can trust to replace him.

This is while “Zenawi knows all to well how quickly he can become expendable when it comes to the interests of Pax Americana and has made sure that the Ethiopian army has been purged of any and all who might replace him,” Mountain said.

However, Mountain added that despite CIA’s grave power inside Ethiopia the end of the Zenawi regime grows closer and with it there will be no longer “a regional power and policeman on the beat for the imperial interests of the USA”.

“So far $ 7 billion a year in western aid has kept Meles Zenawi and his army, the largest, best equipped in Africa, in power and able to do Pax Americana’s dirty work in the Horn of Africa. But with Meles gone and no pro-USA replacement waiting in the wings the options facing America will be daunting,” Mountain added.

The 57-year-old Meles Zenawi, who is the head of the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, has been the ruler of the African nation since 1991.