Siraj Fergessa

Siraj Fegessa is the incumbent Minister of Defense of Ethiopia. He is a Muslim, a member of the Silte people, as well as a member of the South Ethiopian Peoples' Democratic Front, which is part of the ruling coalition, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front. From 2006 until his appointment as Defense Minister on 30 October 2008, Siraj was Minister of Federal Affairs.

He has graduated with his first degree in Forestry at Haremaya University in 1995 and has two Masters degrees; an MA from Azusa Pacific University in Leadership in the United States and an MSC in Security Sector Management from Cranfield University in London, United Kingdom. He is the first Silte minister to be appointed in Ethiopia as well as the first to be from his party.