African leaders unveil statue of Ethiopia's last emperor

A statue of Ethiopia's Emperor Haile Selassie has been unveiled at the headquarters of the African Union on Sunday.

The statue is the second to be erected inside the continental body's offices in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, after one of Ghana's first leader, Kwame Nkrumah, who championed pan-Africanism.

Several African leaders attending the current African Union summit and relatives of the emperor attended the statue unveiling ceremony.

Ethiopians have cheered the statue's erection, the first on Ethiopian soil since Haile Selassie was mysteriously killed at the age of 83 in 1975 when a military junta called the Derg overthrew the imperial dynasty that existed in Ethiopia for 3,000 years.

Emperor Haile Selassie is among the key African leaders who founded the Organisation of African Unity, which became the African Union.

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