Nobel Peace Prize goes to Ethiopian PM
OSLO – The 2018 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
Ahmed was cited for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and in particular for his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighboring Eritrea.
Berit Reiss-Andersen, chair of the five-member Norwegian Nobel Institute that awards the Nobel Peace Prize, said
Ahmed was named for his moves to end his country’s conflict with next door Eritrea within months of coming to office in 2018. He signed a “Joint Declaration of Peace and Friendship” with Eritrean Prime Minister Isaias Afwerki.
Within the Nobel Peace Prize there is a long history of prizes going to statesmen associated with ending conflicts, most recently Colombia’s Juan Manuel Santos who was awarded the prize in 2016 for helping to bring his country’s 50-year civil war to an end.
While the other prizes are announced in Stockholm, the Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded in the Norwegian capital, Oslo.
The son of poor villagers, a spy boss, and now the man behind dizzying attempts to reform Africa’s fastest-growing economy and heal wounds with Ethiopia’s neighbors, Ahmed has seen an unpredictable and peril-strewn rise to fame.
Since becoming Ethiopian prime minister in April 2018, the 43-year-old has aggressively pursued policies that have the potential to upend his country’s society and reshape dynamics beyond its borders.
Within just six months of his swearing-in, Ahmed made peace with bitter foe Eritrea, released dissidents from jail, apologized for state brutality and welcomed home exiled armed groups branded “terrorists” by his predecessors.
More recently, he has turned to fleshing out his vision for the economy while laying the groundwork for elections, currently scheduled to take place next May.
But analysts fret that his policies are, simultaneously, too much too fast for the political old guard, and too little too late for the country’s angry youth, whose protests swept him to power.
Despite the challenges, Ahmed’s allies predict his deep well of personal ambition will prompt him to keep swinging big.