Because of little pay and bad living conditions, he left his teaching job to join the Holetta Military Academy.

He was recalled to Addis Ababa from Asmara to serve on the military tribunal, which tried the high-ranking officers who had tried to depose President Mengistu in 1989 following the decisive defeat at the Battle of Shire.

[4] He became acting president on 21 May 1991 when Mengistu fled as Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) forces closed in on the capital.

[6][7] According to Paul B. Henze, Tesfaye had first sought sanctuary at the US embassy, but Ambassador Robert Houdek turned him away.

[11] In the book I noti ospiti, a waiter claimed that on June 2, 2004, Tesfaye was struck on the head with a bottle by his fellow refugee (and former foreign minister) Berhanu Bayeh, causing him to bleed.