Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali Wins Nobel Peace Prize

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed speaks at an inauguration event in Addis Ababa. (Wikimedia Commons)

The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced on October 11 that Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali will be the recipient of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. Abiy Ahmed is the 100th recipient of the prize and the first Ethiopian to receive the award. The committee cited several reasons for their decision, referencing both Abiy’s work to facilitate peace talks between his country and Eritrea, as well as his commitment to internal reforms. 

Abiy rose to power in Ethiopia after mass protests in February 2018 forced the former prime minister to resign. After assuming office, he quickly began to institute reforms at home, while also signaling to neighboring Eritrea that his government would be willing to bring an end to the two countries’ 20-year-long border dispute. 

Eritrea gained its independence from Ethiopia in 1991. The two countries quickly came to blows over the border town of Badme, which both claimed. Violence erupted, resulting in 80,000 deaths. A peace agreement in 2000 called for the creation of an independent commission to deal with the border dispute. When that commission ordered Ethiopia to transfer the town to Eritrea, however, Ethiopia refused, leading to a 20-year, occasionally violent, stalemate. 

In June 2018, Abiy announced that Ethiopia would cede control of the disputed region to Eritrea, rapidly bringing the conflict to an end. In September 2018, the countries began to allow travel and trade between themselves for the first time in decades.

This was not Abiy’s only foreign policy success cited by the Nobel Committee in its announcement. The committee also referenced his work in helping to normalize relations between Djibouti and Eritrea, which have long held animosity towards one another, as well as his efforts to mediate a conflict between Somalia and Kenya over marine rights. Abiy also played a key role in the drafting of a new constitution in Sudan, which establishes a process for transitioning the country from military to civilian rule.

The committee also referenced Abiy’s numerous domestic reforms as further justification for their decision. When Abiy became prime minister, Ethiopia was still reeling from the anti-government protests that had forced his predecessor to resign. Abiy was able to transition the country out of a state of emergency as he freed political prisoners, undid government censorship, and legalized opposition groups. 

Despite these achievements, many have argued that there is still much work to be done in Ethiopia, a fact that has been acknowledged by the Nobel Committee. Even with this acknowledgement, many argue that Abiy has been awarded the prize far too early. Mohammad Girma, a researcher at the University of Pretoria, and others have drawn a parallel between Abiy and Aung San Suu Kyi, the state counsellor of Myanmar who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. In the years since the Nobel Committee awarded Suu Kyi the prize, her party has abetted widespread ethnic cleansing against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. 

Although there are no speculations that Abiy will commit ethnic cleansing or any crime of that magnitude, Suu Kyi’s story has left many in the international community reticent toward the idea of awarding the prize to someone so young and whose legacy remains unestablished.