Gebru was born in Mekelle, Ethiopia and attended Atse Yohannes High School and Haile Selassie I University during the early 1970s. He holds an undergraduate and graduate degree in economics.
After the TPLF defeated the Derg in the Ethiopian Civil War, Gebru became President of Tigray Region. Under Gebru a number of institutions of higher education, industries, hospitals and infrastructures were established in Tigray.
In May 1998, Eritrea started a border war which led to the death of tens of thousands of people on both sides.[1] By the end of the war, the Ethiopian army recovered the town of Badme and drove back Eritrean forces until they controlled around one-third of Eritrean territory, including Barentu region.