Sem Fabrizi expelled, just ten months after arriving in Addis Ababa
ByMassimo AlberizziAugust 18, 2026
Ten months after his arrival in Addis Ababa, the Italian ambassador to Ethiopia , Sem Fabrizi, was declared persona non grata by the Ethiopian government. So, a couple of days ago, he returned to Rome. His colleagues at the Farnesina speak highly of him: “I don’t know him personally (although I’ve met him at a few meetings), but mutual friends say he’s a really good person,” a long-time career diplomat told Africa ExPress and Il Fatto Quotidiano .
The news was kept confidential, and some Foreign Ministry officials questioned about the case said they knew nothing about it. Only to later confirm the expulsion and wonder why the Italian government hadn’t applied the principle of reciprocity: “You expel my ambassador, I’ll expel yours.”
But the Foreign Ministry in Addis Ababa , while admitting that they are aware of the case of Sem Fabrizi, confirms that the Ethiopian ambassador in Rome is firmly in his position.
There’s still no official comment from our Foreign Ministry, but rumors confirm that Fabrizi, during his brief tenure, had taken strong decisions to better and thoroughly control the embassy’s activities. This included a moralizing effort that didn’t sit well with many, not just Italians, who work at the embassy: especially members of the Ethiopian government or those close to the country’s prime minister and strongman, Abiy Ahmed.
“Before Fabrizi arrived,” says a businessman familiar with relations between the Ethiopian government and the Italian embassy, ”goods that should have been inspected were being smuggled into the African country with the embassy’s approval: spare parts, food, furniture, and even weapons. All of these items were destined for the Prime Minister’s family and friends.” Our interviewer concludes by exclaiming: “Fabrizi was just the ambassador we needed! He wouldn’t let anyone walk all over him. He must have seen the embassy’s behavior and said ‘No.’ And he made quite a few enemies, not just here. In Italy, too.”
The administration prior to Ambassador Fabrizi’s was criticized, among other things, for its lax approach to visas for the Prime Minister’s entourage. Upon his arrival, Fabrizi had ordered that all visa applications be outsourced to a private agency, VFS Global, free from corruption and pressure of any kind.
Embassy officials now directly handle only visas for employment, family reunification, and similar purposes authorized by Italy.
What is surprising is that the Italian government, and specifically Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, accepted the ambassador’s expulsion without saying a word.
Among other things, fighting has resumed in Ethiopia between the federal government and the Tigrayans of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). In an incomprehensible reversal of alliances, the Tigrayan militia now have the support of the Eritrean dictator Isayas Aferworki, the Amhara rebels of Fano , and the Oromo rebels of the Oromo Liberation Army . The Tigrayan-Eritrean coalition is unnatural. Indeed, it would be natural (for ethnic, linguistic, cultural, and religious reasons), but the antagonism between the two elites is insurmountable.
The Ethiopian Prime Minister , who was an ally of the Eritrean regime in the last war against the TPLF (from 2020 to 2022), has recently changed his opinion and maintains that Ethiopia must have access to the sea and therefore must take Assab.
Naturally, everyone is rearming to the teeth : drones, anti-drone systems, new technological weapons. Obviously, the Italian market is being attacked. We shouldn’t be surprised if some “misunderstanding” regarding Leonardo’s arms supplies to Ethiopia were to emerge among the reasons for Fabrizi’s dismissal.
Martin Plaut 
To separate real diplomatic reporting from conspiracy-driven journalism, can you answer the following four questions.
Question 1: On Smuggling and Diplomatic Immunity
“You claim that goods like furniture and weapons were smuggled into Ethiopia ‘with the embassy’s approval’ for the Prime Minister’s friends. Since foreign embassies possess diplomatic immunity and are legally shielded from local customs searches, how could the embassy ‘approve’ a breach of local laws without using that diplomatic protection? If Ambassador Fabrizi stopped it, isn’t he simply refusing to misuse diplomatic privileges, rather than correcting a direct law broken by the embassy itself?”
Question 2: On the Mechanism of the Expulsion
“You imply that members of the Ethiopian government or people close to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed were angered by Fabrizi’s moralizing and pushed him out. Under international law (the Vienna Convention), an ambassador can only be expelled via a formal persona non grata declaration through a state’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Did the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry act on verifiable state grounds, or are you claiming that local officials unilaterally bypassed diplomatic law to settle a personal grievance?”
Question 3: On Italy’s Visa Laws and Political Pressure
“You state that the previous embassy administration had a ‘lax approach’ to visas for the Prime Minister’s entourage, and that Fabrizi fixed this by outsourcing to VFS Global. If these were Italian visas governed by Italian immigration law, how did Ethiopian politicians have the authority to force an Italian ambassador to break Italian rules? Furthermore, if Fabrizi successfully secured the visa process, why would Rome accept his expulsion silently instead of defending an ambassador who was protecting Italian law?”
Question 4: On the Speculation About Arms and Leonardo
“At the end of your article, you tie the ambassador’s expulsion to a possible ‘misunderstanding regarding Leonardo’s arms supplies to Ethiopia.’ Do you have hard evidence linking Ambassador Fabrizi—whose role is diplomatic—to corporate military procurement decisions made by sovereign states and private defense contractors? Or is this final link purely speculative guesswork to connect a regional war to a diplomatic fallout?”
Not my article. I was posting it from an Italian newspaper.