Ethiopia’s PM wins Nobel Peace Prize
OSLO - Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed won the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for his peacemaking efforts which ended two decades of hostility with longtime enemy Eritrea.
Though Africa’s youngest leader still faces big challenges, he has in under two years in power begun political and economic reforms that promise a better life for many in impoverished Ethiopia and restored ties with Eritrea that had been frozen since a 19982000 border war.
“I am so humble and thrilled. It is a prize given to Africa, given to Ethiopia,” Abiy Ahmed said in a recorded phone call with the secretary of the award committee that was posted online.
Mr Abiy was meeting Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok when he was informed he had won the prize, Mr Abiy’s spokeswoman said.
The Nobel Committee said Mr Abiy had won the prestigious prize for “efforts to achieve peace and international co-operation, and in particular for his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighbouring
Eritrea.”