By Faith Karimi

(CNN) — Ethiopia’s prime minister is “recovering well,” a spokesman said Wednesday, amid frenzied speculation about the health of the usually visible leader, who has not appeared in public for two months.

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, 57, came to power two decades ago and is considered a strong force in the frequently volatile horn of Africa.

He has not appeared in public since June, and the secretive nation has released little information about his whereabouts, prompting rumors and opposition claims that he is dead or facing a life-threatening illness.

After weeks of speculation, the government held a news conference last month and announced he got treatment for an unspecified illness.

Zenawi is “recovering well, resting and performing his duties as prime minister and head of state,” government spokesman Bereket Simon reiterated Wednesday. He declined to give exact details on Zenawi’s whereabouts or the nature of his illness.

His absence has been a hot topic in the nation, with bloggers launching a counter of the number of days he’s been missing. Citizens have taken to social media to discuss his whereabouts and exchange conspiracy theories.

Searches for Zenawi are at their highest since 2004, according to Google trends.

“Ethiopians are a bit confused,” said Endalk Hailemichael, 30, of Addis Ababa. “In Ethiopia, there are traditions of secrecy and hiding the whereabouts of leaders. People are afraid, there is a lot of uncertainty looming. A lot of rumors and unclear information going on.”

Hailemichael said the disappearance has sparked a lot of questions, including who would succeed him in case of a power vacuum. But most people are discussing it with fear of repercussions, he said.

Combating threats in Somalia

CNN reached several people in the nation who expressed their concerns about his whereabouts, but did not want to be quoted for fear of retribution.

“People are afraid to talk about it. This is a police state,” Hailemichael said. “They are talking about it, but they are looking over their shoulders. In bars, in taxis, coffee shops, that’s all people are talking about. But they are afraid.”

His absence was more evident last month when Ethiopia hosted an African Union summit in its capital of Addis Ababa. Zenawi, a key player in talks on the tensions between Sudan and its rival neighbor South Sudan, did not attend.

“Some people are worried, some people are crying,” said Jomanex Kassaye, 30, who lives near Addis Ababa. “While some people are worried about the instability that might occur … others are happy that he may be gone.”

Kassaye said, while he is not a fan of the leader, he wants him to leave through a democratic process.

“I need him to go because there is no democracy, no freedom of speech, no food, no justice, no accountability,” he said. “But not like this. If he leaves like this, we will have another dictator who will take over power and stay for too long.”

Ethiopia, which is a key Western ally often lauded for effective use of aid money, is surrounded by unstable nations such as Somalia and Eritrea. Zenawi has been credited with working toward peace and security in the region.

The Ethiopian army has sent peacekeepers to battle Islamic extremist group Al-Shabaab in Somalia. More recently, the prime minister was working to broker a peace deal in the negotiations between Sudan and South Sudan, which split last year but still have unresolved issues.

In an attempt to quash the rumors, the government censored a newspaper that tried to report information about his health, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

“This weekend, the government ordered the state-run printing company not to produce the latest edition of the weekly Feteh, which was to have carried front-page coverage of Zenawi’s condition,” the media advocacy group said on its website.

Zenawi, a former guerrilla leader, is part of a group that toppled dictator Haile Mengustu Mariam in 1991. The shrewd politician is credited with economic progress and maintaining peace in the nation surrounded by volatile countries.

However, human rights groups have accused his government of a heavy hand and a series of abuses, including limiting press freedoms and cracking down on opposition political parties.

Last year, Ethiopia found two Swedish journalists guilty of supporting terrorism and sentenced them to 11 years

1. dire says:

   August 16, 2012 at 10:45 pm

   Ato Yared might claim to know the former Bereket ‘very well’. As Ato Yared might agree the former Bereket is very different from the present Bereket. People change as we all do with time and circumstances in which they operate. Therefore the fact that Yared knew the former Bereket ‘very well’ 25 years ago does not make Yared an authority today to give character reference about him. Since the whole analysis including reading between the lines is based on the assumption of knowing him ‘very well’ a quarter of a century back, Yared’s conclusion is no better than anybody’s guess. This rather shows Yared’s naivity not excluding other ulterior motives. Bereket is rather known to the Ethiopian people both inside and outside the country as a bold faced pathological liar. He never flinches lying in your face. I would bet whatever I have that if Yared asks Bereket about the massacre of the 2005 in the streets of Addis by Meles’s Agazi militia, Bereket would tell Yared that the over 200 innocent people were murdered while robbing banks with the same ‘bold face, certainity and tone’ that Yared has described for reaching his conclusion about his recent statement on the situations of Meles. Is Yared going to turn to us and say ‘Oh, those murdered people were bank robbers because the certainity and tone in which Bereket spoke was convincing’? This is ridiculous and at best naivity. Rather, I would think here is the playbook for Bereket’s unfolding drama for face saving. He will soon come before mics and cameras and announce that ‘Meles has returned to office but submitted his resignation with immediate effect.’ He will then say something to the effect of ‘as I told you before he had returned but instead of resuming his duties, he submitted his resignation letter because of health reasons.’ He will then answer no questions regarding Meles’s health status claiming ‘he is now a private citizen.’ After a while (after the so called power struggle is concluded) they will pronounce Meles’s death. This is how they are preparing to unfold the drama. Until then Bereket will continue to lie in our face and naive people like Yared would continue to fall prey to his propaganda.

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