JUST a few hours after Meles Zenawi’s death was announced, British prime ministers past and present were queuing to pay tribute. David Cameron described him as an “inspirational spokesman for Africa”, and Gordon Brown said Ethiopia “made more progress in education, health and economic development under his leadership than at any time in its history”.

In 1998, the then US president, Bill Clinton, said Meles was part of a new generation of African leaders with whom the West could do business, along with Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda.

Meles, in particular, made himself bulletproof, first by turning a country synonymous with televised famine in the 1980s into what is claimed to be one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, and second by setting himself up as a bulwark against Islamist militancy.

Meles built one of the strongest armies on the continent, and it saw action in Somalia and Sudan with mixed results.

In 1998 he went to war against neighbouring Eritrea, at the cost of tens of thousands of lives.

When the Ethiopian military wanted to march all the way to the Eritrean capital, it was Meles who stopped them, Richard Dowden, director of the Royal African Society, said.

“There was a crucial moment when Meles sacked hundreds of officers because they didn’t like the settlement with Eritrea. I wonder now whether that might bubble up again, because it’s never been settled.”

His death raises questions about Ethiopia’s influence over other neighbours. Adekeye Adebajo, director of the Centre for Conflict Resolution in South Africa, said: “If there is a weaker, less confident leader, it may mean Ethiopia is not so confident in playing that foreign policy role. That could have a direct impact on security in the Horn of Africa.”

For now, the acting prime minister is Hailemariam Desalegn, a former university dean. Other contenders to succeed Meles include the health minister, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus; Alemayehu Atomsa, head of a party allied to that of Meles; and Meles’s widow, Azeb Mesfin, a workaholic politician.

Whoever it is, they will find it hard to match Meles’s intellect or his ability to show different faces to different audiences. Dowden interviewed him in May and described him as “the cleverest and most engaging prime minister in Africa — at least when he talks to visiting outsiders”. He added: “But then someone told me that, when addressing Ethiopians, he’s dogmatic, severe and dictatorial.” — The Guardian, London