Ethiopians from UK, Sweden, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland and the US protested during the G20 summit in London against the attendance of Meles Zenawi on Thursday, 2 April 2009 as detailled in the extensive report by AbbayMedia from London.

After the event, Meles Zenawi, current NEPAD chair, abruptly cancelled a press conference he was about to give, reportedly worried about the kind of questions that were going to be put to him concerning human rights violations within Ethiopia and his dealing with his opponents, before conducting this interview.