Isaias Afewerki (Tigrinya: ኢሳይያስ ኣፈወርቂ) (born February 2, 1946 in Asmara, Eritrea) is the first president of Eritrea, a position he has held since 1993. He led the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) to victory in May 1991, thus ending the 30-year old armed liberation struggle that the Eritrean people refer to as "Gedli". Two years later, he became President following an independence referendum. He is the head of the ruling People's Front for Democracy and Justice.

Isaias was born in the Eritrean capital Asmara (then the second largest city in Ethiopia), to a father from the village of Tselot, located in the formerly Hamasien province of Eritrea.

The EPLF was one of many armed groups struggling against the dictator, Mengistu Hailemariam. Afewerki was elected Leader of the EPLF in 1975. He has been the chairperson of both the EPLF and the PFDJ since the PFDJ assumed power at the end of the Eritrean War for Independence and the Ethiopian Civil War in 1991. He has been President of Eritrea ever since the country seceded from Ethiopia in 1991 and then elected by the National Assembly after achieving de-jure independence in 1993.

Meles Zenawi Asres (Ge'ez: መለስ ዜናዊ አስረስ Mäläs Zenawi Äsräs; born 8 May 1955) has been the Prime Minister of Ethiopia since 1995. He was President of Ethiopia from 1991 to 1995. Since 1985, he has been chairman of the Tigrayan Peoples' Liberation Front (TPLF), and he is head of the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF).

Meles was born in Adwa, Tigray in Northern Ethiopia, to an Ethiopian father from Adwa, Ethiopia, and a mother from Adi Quala, Eritrea. He graduated from the General Wingate high school in Addis Ababa, then studied medicine at Addis Ababa University (at the time known as Haile Selassie University) for two years before interrupting his studies in 1975 to join the TPLF. While a member of the TPLF, he founded the Marxist-Leninist League of Tigray. His first name at birth was "Legesse" (thus Legesse Zenawi, Ge'ez: ለገሰ ዜናዊ legesse zēnāwī) but he is better known by his nom de guerre Meles. He later changed his first name to "Meles" in honor of a University student and a revolutionary radical who was executed by the previous government in 1975.