Abiy Ahmed

Abiy Ahmed Ali (Ge'ez: ዐቢይ አህመድ አሊ; born 15 August 1976) is an Ethiopian politician serving as 4th Prime Minister of Ethiopia[1] of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia[2] since 2 April 2018. He is the first Oromo chairman of the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF)[3] from the Oromo Democratic Party (ODP), which is one of the four coalition parties of the EPRDF.[4] Abiy is also an elected member of the Ethiopian parliament, and a member of the ODP and EPRDF executive committees.

This article is about a person whose name includes a patronymic. The article properly refers to the person by his given name, Abiy, and not as Ahmed.
Abiy Ahmed
ዐቢይ አህመድ አሊ
Abiy in 2018
10th Prime Minister of Ethiopia
Assumed office
2 April 2018
PresidentMulatu Teshome
Sahle-Work Zewde
DeputyDemeke Mekonnen
Preceded byHailemariam Desalegn
3rd Chairman of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front
In office
27 March 2018 – 1 December 2019
DeputyDemeke Mekonnen
Preceded byHailemariam Desalegn
Succeeded bypost abolished
Leader of the Oromo Democratic Party
In office
22 February 2018 – 1 December 2019
DeputyLemma Megersa
Preceded byLemma Megersa
Succeeded bypost abolished
Minister of Science and Technology
In office
6 October 2015 – 1 November 2016
Prime MinisterHailemariam Desalegn
Preceded byDemitu Hambisa
Succeeded byGetahun Mekuria
Director General of the Information Network Security Agency
Acting
In office
2008–2015
Preceded byTeklebirhan Woldearegay
Succeeded byTemesgen Tiruneh
Personal details
Born
Abiy Ahmed Ali

(1976-08-15) 15 August 1976
Beshasha, Jimma, Ethiopia
Political partyProsperity Party
Other political
affiliations		Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front
Oromo Democratic Party
Spouse(s)Zinash Tayachew
Children4
EducationMicrolink Information Technology College (BA)
University of Greenwich (MA)
Ashland University (MBA)
Addis Ababa University (PhD)
AwardsNobel Peace Prize (2019)
Websitepmo.gov.et/pm/
Military service
Allegiance Ethiopia
Branch/serviceEthiopian Army
Years of service1991–2010
Rank Lieutenant Colonel
UnitArmy Signals Corps
CommandsInformation Network Security Agency
Battles/warsEthiopian Civil War
United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda
Eritrean–Ethiopian War

A former army intelligence officer, since becoming prime minister Abiy has launched a wide programme of political and economic reforms,[5] and worked to broker peace deals in Eritrea, South Sudan, and a transition agreement in the Republic of the Sudan. Abiy was awarded the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in ending the 20-year post-war territorial stalemate between Ethiopia and Eritrea. [6]

Personal life

Early life

Abiy Ahmed was born in the small town of Beshasha, located near Agaro, Oromia.[7][8][9][10] His deceased father, Ahmed Ali, was a Muslim Oromo[11] (and had four wives[12]), while his deceased mother, Tezeta Wolde,[13] was a Christian Oromo [14]. Despite some sources claims that his mother was an ethnic Amhara [15][16]., Dr. Abiy witnessed on Oromia Broadcasting Network interview that both of his parents are Oromos[14]. Mr Ahmed was a typical Ethiopian farmer and was only able to speak Afaan Oromo while Mrs. Tizita was a fluent speaker of both Afaan Oromo and Amharic[14] .

Abiy is the 13th child of his father and the sixth and youngest child of his mother, the fourth of his father's four wives.[7][15] His childhood name was Abiyot (English: "Revolution"). The name was sometimes given to children in the aftermath of the Derg revolution of 1974.[7] The then Abiyot went to the local primary school and later continued his studies at secondary schools in Agaro town. Abiy, according to several personal reports, was always very interested in his own education and later in his life also encouraged others to learn and to improve.[7]

Religion

Abiy is a devout Protestant,[17] born of a Muslim father and an Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Christian mother. He was raised in a family of religious plurality. He, along with his entire family, is a regular church attendee, and Abiy also occasionally ministers in preaching and teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ at the Ethiopian Full Gospel Believers' Church. His wife Zinash Tayachew is also a devout Protestant Christian who ministers in her church as a gospel singer. Abiy frequently underscores the importance of faith and as a result, almost all faith communities are enjoying greater liberality in his tenure. The 4 main state television stations (ETV (Ethiopia), Walta TV, Addis TV and Fana TV) have been airing religious services almost every day since the outbreak of COVID-19.

Education

While serving in the Ethiopian National Defense Force, Abiy received his first degree, a Bachelor's degree in computer engineering[18] from the Microlink Information Technology College in Addis Ababa in 2001.[19]

Abiy holds a Master of Arts in Transformational Leadership[18] earned from the business school at Greenwich University, London, in collaboration with the International Leadership Institute, Addis Ababa, in 2011. He also holds a Master of Business Administration[18] from the Leadstar College of Management and Leadership in Addis Ababa in partnership with Ashland University in 2013.[19]

Abiy, who had started his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) work several years ago as a regular student,[20] completed his Ph.D. in 2017 at the Institute for Peace and Security Studies, Addis Ababa University. He did his Ph.D. work on the Agaro constituency with the PhD thesis entitled "Social Capital and its Role in Traditional Conflict Resolution in Ethiopia: The Case of Inter-Religious Conflict In Jimma Zone State". As a follow-up to his Ph.D. thesis, he published a research article on de-escalation strategies in the Horn of Africa in a special journal issue dedicated to countering violent extremism.[21]

Other aspects

Abiy met and married his wife, Zinash Tayachew, an Amhara woman from Gondar,[22][7][15] while both were serving in the Ethiopian Defense Forces.[23] They are the parents of three daughters and one recently adopted son.[23] Abiy is multilingual and speaks Afaan Oromo, Amharic and English.[24] He is a fitness aficionado and professes that physical health goes hand in hand with mental health and, as such, he frequents physical and gym activities in Addis Ababa.[23] Abiy is a devout Evangelical Pentecostal Christian of the Full Gospel Believers' Church.[17] As such, he believes that he's "doing God's work" when promoting peace and reconciliation.[25]

Military career

As a teenager and in early 1991,[26] he joined the armed struggle against the Marxist–Leninist regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam after the death of his oldest brother. He did so as a member of ODP (Oromo Democratic Party), which at that time was a tiny organization of only around 200 fighters in the large coalition army of about 100,000 fighters that resulted in the regime's fall later that year.[24][7][23] As there were only so few ODP fighters in an army with its core of about 90,000 Tigrayans, Abiy quickly had to learn the Tigrinya language. As a speaker of Tigrinya in a security apparatus dominated by Tigrayans, he could move forward with his military career.[24]

After the fall of the Derg, he took formal military training from Assefa Brigade in West Wollega and was stationed there. His military post was in intelligence and communications. Later on he became a soldier in the now Ethiopian National Defense Force in 1993 and worked mostly in the intelligence and communications departments. In 1995, after the Rwandan genocide, he was deployed as a member of the United Nations Peace Keeping Force (UNAMIR), Kigali, Rwanda.[27] In the Ethio-Eritrea War between 1998 and 2000, he led an intelligence team to discover positions of the Eritrean Defence Forces.[28]

Later on, Abiy was posted back to his home town of Beshasha, where he – as an officer of the Defense Forces – had to address a critical situation of inter-religious clashes between Muslims and Christians with a number of deaths.[24][29] He brought calm and peace in a situation of communal tensions accompanying the clashes.[24] In later years, following his election as an MP, he continued these efforts to bring about reconciliation between the religions through the creation of the Religious Forum for Peace.[28]

In 2008, Abiy was one of the co-founders of the Ethiopian Information Network Security Agency (INSA), where he worked in different positions.[7] For two years, he was acting director of INSA due to the director's leave of absence.[7] In this capacity, he was board member of several government agencies working on information and communications, like Ethio Telecom and Ethiopian Television. He attained the rank of Lieutenant Colonel[21][24] before deciding in 2010 to leave the military and his post as deputy director of INSA to become a politician.

Political career

Member of Parliament

Abiy started his political career as a member of the ODP (Oromo Democratic Party).[30] The ODP is the ruling party in Oromia Region since 1991 and also one of four coalition parties of the ruling coalition in Ethiopia, the EPRDF (Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front). He became a member of the central committee of ODP and congress member of the Executive Committee of the EPRDF – in quick succession.[24] In the 2010 national election, Abiy represented the woreda of Agaro and became an elected member of the House of Peoples' Representatives, the lower chamber of the Ethiopian Federal Parliamentary Assembly. Before and during his time of parliamentary service, there were several religious clashes among Muslims and Christians in Jimma zone. Some of these confrontations turned violent and resulted in the loss of life and property. Abiy, as an elected member of parliament took a proactive role in working with several religious institutions and elders to bring about reconciliation in the zone. He helped set up a forum entitled "Religious Forum for Peace", an outcome of the need to devise a sustainable resolution mechanism to restore peaceful Muslim-Christian community interaction in the region.[21]

In 2014, during his time in parliament, Abiy became the director-general of a new and in 2011 founded Government Research Institute called Science and Technology Information Center (STIC).[7][31] The following year, Abiy became an executive member of ODP. The same year he was elected to the House of Peoples' Representatives for a second term, this time for his home woreda of Gomma.[32]

Rise to power

Starting from 2015, Abiy became one of the central figures in the violent fight against illegal land grabbing activities in Oromia Region and especially around Addis Ababa. Although the Addis Ababa Master Plan at the heart of the land-grabbing plans was stopped in 2016, the disputes continued for some time resulting in injuries and deaths.[33] It was this fight against land-grabbing, that finally boosted Abiy Ahmed's political career, brought him into the spotlight and allowed him to climb the political ladder.[24]

In October 2015, Abiy became the Ethiopian Minister of Science and Technology (MoST), a post which he left after only 12 months. From October 2016 on, Abiy served as Deputy President of Oromia Region as part of the team of Oromia Region's president Lemma Megersa while staying a member of the Ethiopian Federal House of Peoples' Representatives.[34][35] Abiy Ahmed also became the head of the Oromia Urban Development and Planning Office. In this role, Abiy was expected to be the major driving force behind Oromia Economic Revolution, Oromia Land and Investment reform, youth employment as well as resistance to widespread land grabbing in Oromia region.[36] As one of his duties in office, he took care of the one million displaced Oromo people displaced from the Somali region from the 2017 unrest.[37]

As head of the ODP Secretariat from October 2017, Abiy crossed over religious and ethnic divides to facilitate the formation of a new alliance between Oromo and the Amhara groups, both making up two thirds of the 100 million Ethiopian population.[38]

In early 2018, many political observers considered Abiy and Lemma Megersa as the most popular politicians within the Oromo community, as well as other Ethiopian communities.[39][40] This came after several years of unrest in Ethiopia. But despite this favourable rating for Abiy Ahmed and Lemma Megersa, young people from the Oromia region called for immediate action without delays to bring fundamental change and freedom to Oromia Region and Ethiopia – otherwise more unrest was to be expected.[33] According to Abiy himself, people are asking for a different rhetoric, with an open and respectful discussion in the political space to allow political progress and to win people for democracy instead of pushing them.[33]

Until early 2018, Abiy continued to serve as head of the ODP secretariat and of the Oromia Housing and Urban Development Office and as Deputy President of Oromia Region. He left all these posts after his election as the leader of the EPRDF.[41][34]

EPRDF leadership election

Following three years of protest and unrest, on 15 February 2018 the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, announced his resignation – which included his resignation from the post of EPRDF Chairman. Historically, the incoming EPRDF Chairman is the next Prime Minister. The EPRDF Chairman on the other hand is one of the heads of the four parties that make up the ruling coalition: ODP, ADP, SEPDM and TPLF.[42]

Hailemariam's resignation triggered the first ever contested leadership election among EPRDF coalition members to replace him. A lot of political observers made Lemma Megersa (the ODP Chairman) and Abiy Ahmed the front-runners to become the Leader of the ruling coalition and eventually Prime Minister of Ethiopia. Despite being the clear favourite for the general public, Lemma Megersa was not a member of the national parliament, a requirement to become Prime Minister as required by the Ethiopian constitution. Therefore, Lemma Megersa was excluded from the leadership race.[43] On 22 February 2018, Lemma Megersa's party, ODP, called for an emergency executive committee meeting and replaced him as Chairman of ODP with Abiy Ahmed, who was a Member of Parliament. Some observers saw that as a strategic move by the ODP to retain its leadership role within the coalition and to promote Abiy Ahmed to become Prime Minister.[32]

On 1 March 2018, the 180 EPRDF executive committee members started their meeting to elect the leader of the party. Each of the four parties sent in 45 members. The contest for the leadership was among Abiy Ahmed of ODP, Demeke Mekonnen, the Deputy Prime Minister and ADP leader, Shiferaw Shigute as Chairman of SEPDM and Debretsion Gebremichael as the Leader of TPLF. Despite being the overwhelming favorite by the majority of Ethiopians, Abiy Ahmed faced major opposition from TPLF and SEPDM members during the leadership discussions.[44]

On 27 March 2018, a few hours before the beginning of the leadership elections, Demeke Mekonnen, who had been seen as the major opponent to Abiy Ahmed, dropped out of the race. Many observers saw this as an endorsement of Abiy Ahmed. Demeke was then approved as Deputy Prime Minister and gotfor another term . Following Demeke's exit, Abiy Ahmed received a presumably unanimous vote from both the ADP and ODP executive members, with 18 additional votes in a secret ballot coming from elsewhere. By midnight, Abiy Ahmed was declared Chairman of the ruling coalition in Ethiopia, the EPRDF, and was considered as the Prime Minister Designate of Ethiopia by receiving 108 votes while Shiferaw Shigute received 58 and Debretsion Gebremichael received 2 votes.[3] On 2 April 2018, Abiy Ahmed was elected as Prime Minister of Ethiopia by the House of Representatives and sworn in.[2]

Prime Minister of Ethiopia

On 2 April 2018, Abiy was confirmed and sworn in by the Ethiopian parliament as Prime Minister of Ethiopia. During his acceptance speech, he promised political reform; to promote the unity of Ethiopia and unity among the peoples of Ethiopia; to reach out to the Eritrean government to resolve the ongoing Eritrean–Ethiopian border conflict after the Eritrean–Ethiopian War and to also reach out to the political opposition inside and outside of Ethiopia. His acceptance speech sparked optimism and received an overwhelmingly positive reaction from the Ethiopian public including the opposition groups inside and outside Ethiopia. Following his speech, his popularity and support across the country reached an historical high and some political observers argued that Abiy was overwhelmingly more popular than the ruling party coalition, the EPRDF.[3]

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed holding his acceptance speech after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize

Domestic policy

Since taking office in April 2018, Abiy's government has presided over the release of thousands of political prisoners from Ethiopian jails and the rapid opening of the country's political landscape.[45][46][47] In May 2018 alone the Oromo region pardoned over 7,600 prisoners.[48] On 29 May Ginbot 7 leader Andargachew Tsege, facing the death penalty on terrorism charges, was released after being pardoned by President Mulatu Teshome, along with 575 other detainees.[49]

That same day, charges were dropped against Andargachew's colleague Berhanu Nega and the Oromo dissident and public intellectual Jawar Mohammed, as well as their respectively affiliated US-based ESAT and OMN satellite television networks.[50] Shortly thereafter, Abiy took the "unprecedented and previously unimaginable" step of meeting Andargachew, who twenty-four hours previously had been on death row, at his office; a move even critics of the ruling party termed "bold and remarkable".[51] Abiy had previously met former Oromo Liberation Front leaders including founder Lencho Letta, who had committed to peaceful participation in the political process, upon their arrival at Bole International Airport.[52]

On 30 May 2018, it was announced the ruling party would amend the country's "draconian" anti-terrorism law, widely perceived as a tool of political repression. On 1 June 2018, Abiy announced the government would seek to end the state of emergency two months in advance of the expiration its six-month tenure, citing an improved domestic situation. On 4 June 2018, Parliament approved the necessary legislation, ending the state of emergency.[47] In his first briefing to the House of Peoples' Representatives in June 2018, Abiy countered criticism of his government's release of convicted "terrorists" which according to the opposition is just a name the EPRDF gives you if you are a part or even meet the "opposition". He argued that policies that sanctioned arbitrary detention and torture themselves constituted extra-constitutional acts of terror aimed at suppressing opposition.[53] This followed the additional pardon of 304 prisoners (289 of which had been sentenced on terrorism-related charges) on 15 June.[54]

The pace of reforms has revealed fissures within the ruling coalition, with hardliners in the military and the hitherto dominant TPLF said to be "seething" at the end of the state of emergency and the release of political prisoners.[55] These hardliners, centered around TPLF chief Debretsion Gebremichael, had grown to deeply resent the leadership of Abiy's predecessor Hailemariam (at times supposedly bringing him to the brink of tears), and had hoped to place a more assertive figure in the prime minister's office willing to "act with an iron fist", rather than a reformist.[56]

An editorial on the previously pro-government website Tigrai Online arguing for the maintenance of the state of emergency gave voice to this sentiment, saying that Abiy was "doing too much too fast".[57] Another article critical of the release of political prisoners suggested that Ethiopia's criminal justice system had become a revolving door and that Abiy's administration had quite inexplicably been rushing to pardon and release thousands of prisoners, among them many deadly criminals and dangerous arsonists.[58] On 13 June 2018, the TPLF executive committee denounced the decisions to hand over Badme and privatize SOEs as "fundamentally flawed", saying that the ruling coalition suffered from a fundamental leadership deficit.[59]

Transparency

In 2018, to expand the free press in Ethiopia, Abiy invited exiled media outlets to return.[60][61][62][63][64][65][66]

However, since assuming office in April 2018, Abiy himself has only given one press conference,[67] on 25 August 2018 and around five months after he assumed office, where he answered questions from journalists. As of 21 March 2019, he has not given another press conference where he has not refused to answer questions from journalists (rather than reading prepared statements).[68][69]

Constitutional reform

In his briefing to parliament of 18 June 2018, Abiy announced that he would set up a commission aimed at reviewing the divisive system of ethnic federalism, which he said was failing to adequately deal with the proliferation of localized disputes over which particular ethnicity was entitled to control certain towns and districts, potentially paving the way for sweeping constitutional reform.[70]

Economic reforms
Abiy has announced that state-owned enterprises such as Ethiopian Airlines are to be partially or wholly privatised.

In June 2018, the ruling coalition announced its intention to pursue the large-scale privatisation of state-owned enterprises and the liberalization of several key economic sectors long considered off-limits, marking a landmark shift in the country's state-oriented development model.[71]

State monopolies in the telecommunications, aviation, electricity, and logistics sectors are to be ended and those industries opened up to private sector competition.[72] Shares in the state-owned firms in those sectors, including Ethiopian Airlines, Africa's largest and most profitable, are to be offered for purchase to both domestic and foreign investors, although the government will continue to hold a majority share in these firms, thereby retaining control of the commanding heights of the economy.[73] State-owned enterprises in sectors deemed less critical, including railway operators, sugar, industrial parks, hotels and various manufacturing firms, may be fully privatised.[74]

Aside from representing an ideological shift with respect to views on the degree of government control over the economy, the move was seen as a pragmatic measure aimed at improving the country's dwindling foreign-exchange reserves, which by the end of the 2017 fiscal year were equal in value to less than two months worth of imports, as well as easing its growing sovereign debt load.[73][71]

In June 2018, Abiy announced the government's intention to establish an Ethiopian stock exchange in tandem with the privatization of state-owned enterprises.[70] As of 2015 Ethiopia was the largest country in the world, in terms of both population and gross domestic product, without a stock exchange.[75]

Foreign policy
Abiy and Israel's President Reuven Rivlin in May 2018
Abiy and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Russia-Africa Summit in Sochi in October 2019
Abiy with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in February 2020

In May 2018, Abiy visited Saudi Arabia, receiving guarantees for the release of Ethiopian prisoners including billionaire entrepreneur Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi, who was detained following the 2017 Saudi Arabian purge.[45]

In June 2018, he met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Cairo and, separately, brokered a meeting in Addis Ababa between the South Sudanese president Salva Kiir and rebel leader Rieck Machar in an attempt to encourage peace talks.[76]

Djibouti and port agreements

Since taking power Abiy has pursued a policy of expanding landlocked Ethiopia's access to ports in the Horn of Africa region. Shortly before his assumption of office it was announced that the Ethiopian government would take a 19% stake in Berbera Port in the unrecognized Republic of Somaliland as part of a joint venture with DP World.[77] In May 2018, Ethiopia signed an agreement with the government of Djibouti to take an equity stake in the Port of Djibouti, enabling Ethiopia to have a say in the port's development and the setting of port handling fees.[78]

Two days later a similar agreement was signed with the Sudanese government granting Ethiopia an ownership stake in the Port of Port Sudan. The Ethio-Djibouti agreement grants the Djiboutian government the option of taking stakes in state-owned Ethiopian firms in return, such as the Ethiopian Airlines and Ethio Telecom.[79] This in turn was followed shortly thereafter by an announcement that Abiy and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta had reached an agreement for the construction of an Ethiopian logistics facility at Lamu Port as part of the Lamu Port and Lamu-Southern Sudan-Ethiopia Transport Corridor (LAPSSET) project.[80]

The potential normalization of Ethiopia-Eritrea relations likewise opens the possibility for Ethiopia to resume using the Ports of Massawa and Asseb, which, prior to the Ethio-Eritrean conflict, were its main ports, which would be of particular benefit to the northern region of Tigray.[71] All these developments would reduce Ethiopian reliance on Djibouti's port which, since 1998, has handled almost all of Ethiopia's maritime traffic.[81][79]

Eritrea
Main articles: Eritrea–Ethiopia relations and 2018 Eritrea–Ethiopia summit

Upon taking office, Abiy stated his willingness to negotiate an end to the Ethio-Eritrean conflict. In June 2018, it was announced that the government had agreed to hand over the disputed border town of Badme to Eritrea, thereby complying with the terms of the 2000 Algiers Agreement to bring an end to the state of tension between Eritrea and Ethiopia that had persisted despite the end of hostilities during the Ethiopia-Eritrea War.[71] Ethiopia had until then rejected the international boundary commission's ruling awarding Badme to Eritrea, resulting in a frozen conflict (popularly termed a policy of "no war, but no peace") between the two states.[82]

During the national celebration on 20 June 2018, the president of Eritrea, Isaias Afwerki, accepted the peace initiative put forward by Abiy and suggested that he would send a delegation to Addis Ababa. On 26 June 2018, Eritrean Foreign Minister Osman Saleh Mohammed visited Addis Ababa in the first Eritrean high-level delegation to Ethiopia in over two decades.[83]

In Asmara, on 8 July 2018, Abiy became the first Ethiopian leader to meet with an Eritrean counterpart in over two decades, in the 2018 Eritrea–Ethiopia summit.[84] The very next day, the two signed a "Joint Declaration of Peace and Friendship" declaring an end to tensions and agreeing, amongst other matters, to re-establish diplomatic relations; reopen direct telecommunication, road, and aviation links; and facilitate Ethiopian use of the ports of Massawa and Asseb.[85][86][87] Abiy was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for his efforts in ending the war.[6]

In practice, the agreement has been described as "largely unimplemented". Critics say not much has changed between the two nations. Among the Eritrean diaspora, many voiced disapproval for the Nobel Peace Prize focusing on the agreement with Eritrea when so little had changed in practice.[88] In July 2020, Eritrea’s Ministry of Information said: “Two years after the signing of the Peace Agreement, Ethiopian troops continue to be present in our sovereign territories, Trade and economic ties of both countries have not resumed to the desired extent or scale.”[89]

Egypt

The dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam has become a national preoccupation in both countries.[90][91] Ahmed has warned: "No force can stop Ethiopia from building a dam. If there is need to go to war, we could get millions readied."[92]

After the murder of activist, singer and political icon Hachalu Hundessa ignited violence across Addis Ababa and other Ethiopian cities, Abiy hinted, without obvious suspects or clear motives for the killing, that Hundessa may have been murdered by Egyptian security agents acting on orders from Cairo to stir up trouble.[93] An Egyptian diplomat responded by saying that Egypt "has nothing to do with current tensions in Ethiopia".[94] Ian Bremmer wrote in a Time magazine article that Prime Minister Abiy "may just be looking for a scapegoat that can unite Ethiopians against a perceived common enemy".[93]

Religious harmony

Ethiopia is a country of various religious groups, primarily Christian and Muslim communities. Both inter-religious and intra-religious divisions and conflicts were a major concern, where both the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and the Ethiopian Islamic Council experienced religious and administrative divisions and conflicts.[95][96] In 2018, he was given a special "peace and reconciliation" award by the Ethiopian Church for his work in reconciling rival factions within the church.[97]

Security sector reform
Ahmed with military commanders in February 2019

In June 2018, Abiy, speaking to senior commanders of the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) declared his intention to carry out reforms of the military to strengthen its effectiveness and professionalism, with the view of limiting its role in politics. This followed renewed calls both within Ethiopia and from international human rights groups, namely Amnesty International, to dissolve highly controversial regional militias such as the Liyyu force.[98] This move is considered likely to face resistance from TPLF hardliners, who occupy much of the military high command.[99]

Notably, he has also called for the eventual reconstitution of the Ethiopian Navy, dissolved in 1996 in the aftermath of Eritrea's secession after an extraterritorial sojourn in Djibouti, saying that "we should build our naval force capacity in the future."[100] It was reported that this move would appeal to nationalists still smarting from the country's loss of its coastline 25 years prior. Ethiopia already has a maritime training institute on Lake Tana as well as a national shipping line.

On 7 June 2018, Abiy carried out a wide-ranging reshuffle of top security officials, replacing ENDF Chief of Staff Samora Yunis with Lieutenant General Se'are Mekonnen, National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) director Getachew Assefa with Lieutenant General Adem Mohammed, National Security Advisor and former army chief Abadula Gemeda, and Sebhat Nega, one of the founders of the TPLF and director-general of the Foreign Relations Strategic Research Institute[101][102] Sebhat's retirements had been previously announced that May.[103]

Grenade attack

A large peaceful demonstration was organized in Addis Ababa at Meskel Square on 23 June 2018 to show support for the new prime minister. Just after Abiy had finished addressing the crowd a grenade was thrown and landed just 17 metres away from where he and other top officials were sitting. Two people were killed and over 165 were injured. Following the attack, 9 police officials were detained, including the deputy police commissioner, Girma Kassa, who was fired immediately. Questions were asked as to how a police car carrying attackers got so close to the prime minister and soon after the car was set alight destroying evidence. After the attack the prime minister addressed the nation on national TV unhurt by the blast and describing it as an "unsuccessful attempt by forces who do not want to see Ethiopia united". On the same day the prime minister made an unannounced visit to the Black Lion general hospital to meet victims of the attack.[104][105][106][107]

Cabinet reshuffle

In the parliamentary session held on 16 October 2018, Abiy proposed to reduce the number of ministries from 28 to 20 with half of the cabinet positions for female ministers, a first in the history of the country.[108] The new cabinet restructure included the first female president, Sahle-Work Zewde; the first female minister of the Ministry of Defense, Aisha Mohammed Musa;[109] the first female minister of the new Ministry of Peace, Muferiat Kamil responsible for the Ethiopian Federal Police and the intelligence agencies; the first female press secretary for the Office of the Prime Minister, Billene Seyoum Woldeyes.[110]

Increasing ethnic unrest

The internal political power shift has created fears for Tigrayans, and already "simmering anti-Tigrayan sentiments have led to violence" people told IRIN, "from barricading roads and forcibly stopping traffic to looting and attacks on Tigrayan homes and businesses in the Amhara and Oromia regions". Tens of thousands Ethiopian Tigrayans have been displaced from their homes (or killed), due to ethnic based violence, since Abiy assumed office.[111][112][113][114][115][116]

Since the 2018 election of Abiy, around 1.5 million Ethiopians were forced from their homes by ethnic violence – the highest number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) of any country in 2018.[117][118][119][120][121]

Some of the worst calamities were in the south, where more than 800,000 Ethiopian Gedeos[122] have fled from the district of West Guji amid persecution by the Oromo Liberation Front. Abiy's government has been accused by humanitarian groups of ignoring the ethnic violence and withholding of aid from Gedeon refugees.[123][124] In September 2018, pogroms in the town of Burayu, near Addis Ababa, killed 65 people.[125]

In the north of Ethiopia, and especially in Tigray which was the cradle of the successful revolt against the Derg that in 1991 put in place the current governing coalition, there are reports of increasing anger and ethnic tension as Abiy's shake-up of the Ethiopian state, which has targeted Tigrayans in top positions, is widely seen as biased and vindictive.[115][126]

Government spokesmen have countered that there are many ex-officials accused of amassing billions in the past decades that are wanted by law enforcement on corruption charges and that many of these defendants come from the ruling Tigrayan elite of the past decades. These legal proceedings are sometimes conflated with ethnic persecution, especially by those ex-officials that fear persecution.[127]

Debretsion Gebremichael, the acting President of Tigray Region and currently chairman of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) and part of the EPRDF ruling coalition, has been reported as having accused prime minister Abiy of "conducting ethnic profiling in the name of fighting corruption" and described "recent arrests of senior military officials as being politically motivated and implemented along ethnic lines",[128] and his criticisms are echoed by other prominent TPLF members and people of Tigray.[129][130][131][116] A local University law professor that IRIN talked to, added and said “there is a lot of [lies] and propaganda, and the TPLF has been made the scapegoat for all vice”.[111] Abiy has also sacked around 160 Tigrayan army Generals and much more lower ranking army officers, in his reforms.[126]

In a March 2019 interview with the Financial Times of London, Debretsion Gebremichael said “concentrating on one ethnic group is dangerous”, when talking about Abiy's crack-down on Tigrayan government workers and politicians, and the fact that Abiy is calling them “daytime hyenas" (a phrase being interpreted as an ethnic slur).[132]

Internet shutdowns

According to the NGO NetBlocks, Politically motivated Internet shutdowns have intensified in severity and duration under the leadership of Abiy Ahmed despite the country’s rapid digitalization and reliance on cellular internet connectivity in recent years.[133] In 2020, Internet shutdowns by the Ethiopian government have been described as "frequently deployed".[134] Access Now said in a statement that shutdowns have become a "go-to tool for authorities to muzzle unrest and activism."[134]

Political party reform

On 21 November 2019, upon approval of EPRDF ruling coalition, a new party, Prosperity Party, is formed via merging of three of the four parties that made up the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and other five affiliate parties. The parties include the Oromo Democratic Party (ODP), the Southern Ethiopian People's Democratic Movement (SEPDM), the Amhara Democratic Party (ADP), the Harari National League (HNL), the Ethiopian Somali Peoples Democratic Party (ESPDP), the Afar National Democratic Party (ANDP), the Gambella Peoples Unity Party (GPUP), and the Benishangul Gumuz Peoples Democratic Party (BGPDP). The programs and bylaws of the newly merged party were first approved by the executive committee of EPRDF. Abiy believes that "Prosperity Party is committed to strengthening & applying a true Federal system which recognizes the diversity and contributions of all Ethiopians".[135]

Political positions

Abiy has been described as a "liberal populist" by the academic and journalist Abiye Teklemariam and the influential Oromo activist Jawar Mohammed. Journalist Michela Wrong, a longtime observer of Ethiopian politics, has written that he resembles the likes of Trump and Vladimir Putin, populists who “use jingoistic appeals to nationalism to truncate or supplant domestic political debate and institutional processes.”[136] Alemayehu Weldemariam, a U.S.-based Ethiopian lawyer and public intellectual, has called Abiy “an opportunistic populist jockeying for power on a democratizing platform.”[137] On the other hand, Tom Gardner argues in a foreign policy article that he's not a populist, but more of a liberal democrat. However, he acknowledges that Abiy has "occasionally used language that can be read as euphemistic and conspiracy-minded", and might have "exploited the system’s vulnerabilities, such as a pliable media and politicized judiciary, for his own ends."[137]

Awards
Award Awarding institution Date
Most Excellent Order of the Pearl of Africa: Grand Master[138] Uganda 9 June 2018
Order of the Zayed Medal[139] UAE Crown Prince 24 July 2018
High Rank Peace Award[140] Ethiopian Orthodox Church 9 September 2018
Order of King Abdulaziz[141] Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 16 September 2018
Nominee for Tipperary International Peace Award alongside Mary Robinson (the eventual winner); Aya Chebbi; humanitarian worker in South Sudan Orla Treacy; the President of Eritrea, Isaias Afwerki; Swedish student and climate change activist Greta Thunberg and Nigerian humanitarian activist Zannah Bukar Mustapha[142] Tipperary Peace Convention November 2018
100 Most Influential Africans of 2018[143] New African magazine 1 December 2018
African of the year[144] The African leadership magazine 15 December 2018
100 Most Influential People 2018[145] Time magazine 1 January 2019
100 Global Thinkers of 2019[146] Foreign Policy magazine 1 January 2019
Personality of the Year[147] AfricaNews.com 1 January 2019
African Excellence Award for Gender[148] African Union 11 February 2019
Humanitarian and Peace Maker Award[149] African Artists Peace Initiative 9 March 2019
Laureate of the 2019 edition of the Félix Houphouët-Boigny – UNESCO Peace Prize [150] UNESCO 2 May 2019
Peace Award for Contribution of Unity to Ethiopian Muslims[151] Ethiopian Muslim Community 25 May 2019
Chatham House Prize 2019 Nominee [152] Chatham House – The Royal Institute of International Affairs July 2019
World Tourism Award 2019[153] World Tourism Forum August 2019
Hessian Peace Prize[154] State of Hessen August 2019
African Association of Political Consultants Award[155] APCAfrica September 2019
Nobel Peace Prize[156] Nobel Foundation 11 October 2019
gollark: Exactly.
gollark: But things are, on the whole, mostly okay. I mean, except now during the whole COVID-19 thing.
gollark: I mean, it's bad, yes.
gollark: That is what I said.
gollark: Seems fine.

References
  1. "Prime Minister". The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia’s Office of the Prime Minister. Retrieved 6 June 2019. H.E. Abiy Ahmed Ali (PhD) is the fourth Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
  2. "Dr Abiy Ahmed sworn in as Prime Minister of Ethiopia". Fana Broadcasting. 1 April 2018. Archived from the original on 13 May 2018. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
  3. "EPRDF elects Abiy Ahmed chair". The Reporter. 27 March 2018. Archived from the original on 27 March 2018. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
  4. "Ethiopia's ODP picks new chairman in bid to produce next Prime Minister". Africa News. 22 February 2018. Archived from the original on 9 December 2018. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
  5. Keane, Fergal (3 January 2019). "Ethiopia's Abiy Ahmed: The leader promising to heal a nation". BBC News. Retrieved 22 March 2019. Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has been widely praised for introducing sweeping reforms aimed at ending political repression.
  6. Busby, Mattha (11 October 2019). "Ethiopian prime minister Abiy Ahmed wins 2019 Nobel peace prize – live news". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
  7. Endeshaw, Dawit (31 March 2018). "The rise of Abiy 'milion' Ahmed". The Reporter. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  8. "Prime Minister". pmo.gov.et.
  9. "Abiy Ahmed Ali". DW.com (in Swahili). 28 March 2018. Abiy Ahmed alizaliwa August 15, 1976 nchini Ethiopia (Abiy Ahmed was born on August 15, 1976 in Ethiopia)
  10. Girma, Zelalem (31 March 2015). "Ethiopia in democratic, transformational leadership". Ethiopian Herald.
  11. Sengupta, Somini (17 September 2018). "Can Ethiopia's New Leader, a Political Insider, Change It From the Inside Out?". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 September 2018.
  12. Endeshaw, Dawit (31 March 2018). "The rise of Abiy "Abiyot" Ahmed". The Reporter. Retrieved 25 March 2019. Coming from a very a well-known and extended family, Abiy is the 13th child for his father, who had four wives. He is the son of Ahmed Ali a.k.a Aba Dabes, Aba Fita. Ahmed, a respected elder in his small town, has contributed to the community by giving his own plot of land so that services giving centers such as clinics and telecom offices would be built. "Aba Dabes, Aba Fita has done a lot for this town," Berhanu, who said that he has known the octogenarian Ahmed for the past half century, told The Reporter.
  13. Endeshaw, Dawit (13 March 2018). "The rise of Abiy "Abiyot" Ahmed". The Reporter. Retrieved 14 April 2019. Abiy's mother, Tezeta Wolde, an Oromo Christian from Burayu, Finfine Special Zone, Oromia Regional State, was the fourth wife for Ahmed. Together they have six children with Abiy being the youngest.
  14. OBN, Oromia. "OBN Afaan Oromoo interview with Dr Abiy Ahmed". Youtube. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  15. "Dr. Abiy Ahmed's diversity portfolio". Satenaw News. 1 April 2018. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
  16. "The Guardian view on Ethiopia: change is welcome, but must be secured". The Guardian. 7 January 2019. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
  17. "God wants Ethiopians to prosper: The prime minister and many of his closest allies follow a fast-growing strain of Christianity". The Economist. 24 November 2018.
  18. በኦሮሚያ ብሄራዊ ክልላዊ መንግስት ካቢኒ አባልነት የተሾሙት እነማን ናቸው? [Who are the Cabinet members in the Oromia Regional State?]. FanaBC (in Amharic). Retrieved 18 February 2018.
  19. "A brief profile about Dr. Abiy Ahmed". Walta Media and Communication Corporate. 28 March 2018.
  20. "IPSS Student named to Ethiopia's Cabinet". IPSS Addis. 12 October 2015. Archived from the original on 9 June 2016. Retrieved 1 April 2018.
  21. Ahmed, Abiy (1 August 2017). "Countering Violent Extremism through Social Capital: Anecdote from Jimma, Ethiopia". Horn of Africa Bulletin. 29 (4): 12–17. ISSN 2002-1666.
  22. "First Lady". FDRE Office of the Prime Minister.
  23. "Dr Abiy Ahmed interview with Amhara TV". ZeHabesha TV. 21 November 2017. Archived from the original on 1 April 2019. Retrieved 25 March 2019 – via YouTube.
  24. Manek, Nizar (4 April 2018). "Can Abiy Ahmed save Ethiopia?". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
  25. "The Pentecostal Faith of Abiy Ahmed". PCPJ. 10 December 2019.
  26. Endeshaw, Dawit (31 March 2018). "The rise of Abiy "Abiyot" Ahmed". The Reporter. Retrieved 25 March 2019. For some time the EPRDF, was in talks with the OLF; in fact, the later was part of the then transitional government. OLF was, at the time, very popular in Oromia region. However, the peaceful talks failed to bear fruit as things turn to become violent. That was when alternative forces like the Oromo People's Democratic Organization (OPDO) came to the fore.
    According to people who witnessed that critical period, the OLF had strong support in Agaro like most parts of Oromia region.
    It was at that time that Abiy's family was directly affected by the political transition in the country. Abiy's father and his eldest son, Kedir Ahmed, were arrested for some time.
    Unfortunately, Kedir was killed during that time in what was believed to be a politically motivated assassination, according to people close to the family.
    By the time, Agaro, which now has a population of, 41,085, was believed to be a stronghold of the OLF.
    "I think losing his brother at that age was a turning point in Abiy's life," Miftah Hudin Aba Jebel, a childhood friend of Abiy, told The Reporter. "I mean we were young and I remember one night Abiy asking me to join the struggle," he recalls. "To be honest, it was difficult for me to understand what he was saying."
    According to multiple sources, Abiy joined the struggle during early 1991, just a few months before the downfall of the military regime, almost at the age of 15.
    "By the time we were teenagers; Abiy, another young man by the name Komitas, who was a driver for Abadula Gemeda at the time, and myself joined the OPDO," Getish Mamo, the then member of OPDO's music band called Bifttu Oromia, told The Reporter. "We were also close with Abadula Gemeda." Abadula was one of the founders of the OPDO and current speaker of the House of People's Representatives.
    Abiy, at the time, was working as a radio operator, according to Getish.
  27. "Dr. Abiy Ahmed's must listen speech on knowledge, ideas and concepts". Borkena.com. 11 January 2018. Retrieved 18 February 2018.
  28. "Nobel Peace Prize: Ethiopia PM Abiy Ahmed wins". BBC News. 11 October 2019.
  29. Mackay, Maria (1 December 2006). "Muslim Mob Kills Six Christians In Ethiopia". Christianity Today. Retrieved 14 July 2007.
  30. "About Us". Oromo Democratic Party. Archived from the original on 17 March 2016. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
  31. "About STIC". Stic.gov.et. Archived from the original on 19 February 2018. Retrieved 18 February 2018.
  32. "Dr Abiy Ahmed: a biography". Eritrea Hub. 7 November 2018.
  33. "Ethiopia: Who is new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali?". Deutsche Welle. 29 March 2018. Retrieved 1 April 2018.
  34. "Exciting opportunity for investors in Oromia State". Ethiopian Herald. Archived from the original on 20 February 2018. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
  35. "Oromia Committed to Support Domestic Investors: Chief Administrator Lemma Megersa". ena.gov.et. Archived from the original on 20 February 2018. Retrieved 18 February 2018.
  36. "ኦሮሚያ፣ የ"ኢኮኖሚ አብዮት"" [Oromia, the "Economy Revolution"]. Deutsche Welle (in Amharic). 10 March 2017. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
  37. "What is behind clashes in Ethiopia's Oromia and Somali regions?". BBC News. 18 September 2017. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
  38. "Amhara Mass Media Agency". Facebook.com. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
  39. "Who will become Ethiopia's new prime minister and how?". The EastAfrican. 17 February 2018. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
  40. Allo, Awol K. "Ethiopia's state of emergency 2.0". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
  41. Endeshaw, Dawit (4 November 2017). "Movers and Shakers!!!". The Reporter. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
  42. "Abiy Ahmed elected as chairman of Ethiopia's ruling coalition". www.aljazeera.com. 28 March 2018. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
  43. "Ethiopia: Dr. Abiy Ahmed tipped to become next PM". Journal du Cameroun. 23 February 2018.
  44. "Seven people who could be Ethiopia's next leader". BBC News. 16 March 2018. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
  45. "Abiy Ahmed pulls off an astonishing turnaround for Ethiopia". The Washington Post. 10 June 2018. Retrieved 11 June 2018.
  46. Soleiman, Ahmend (27 April 2018). "Ethiopia's Prime Minister Shows Knack for Balancing Reform and Continuity". Chatham House. Retrieved 6 June 2018.
  47. Dahir, Abdi Latif (4 June 2018). "Ethiopia will end its state of emergency early, as part of widening political reforms". Quartz. Retrieved 5 June 2018.
  48. "Ethiopia's Oromia regional state pardons 7,611 detainees". Xinhua. 24 May 2018. Retrieved 6 June 2018.
  49. "Ethiopia frees abducted Briton Andargachew Tsege on death row". BBC News. 29 May 2018. Retrieved 6 June 2018.
  50. "Ethiopia drops charges against 2 US-based broadcasters". The Washington Post. Associated Press. 29 May 2018. Retrieved 6 June 2018.
  51. Zelalem, Zecharias (31 May 2018). "Ethiopia's PM Abiy Ahmed 'breaks the internet' with photo of Andargachew Tsige meeting". OPride. Retrieved 6 June 2018.
  52. Standard, Addis (24 May 2018). "PM #AbiyAhmed met today with the leadership of ODF". Twitter - @addisstandard. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
  53. Mumbere, Daniel (19 June 2018). "Ethiopia PM says era of state sanctioned torture is over". AfricaNews. Retrieved 19 June 2018.
  54. "Ethiopia pardons hundreds sentenced on 'terrorism' charges". Al Jazeera. Reuters. 15 June 2018. Retrieved 19 June 2018.
  55. Bruton, Bronwyn (6 June 2018). "The announcement that Ethiopia will give up Badme..." Twitter. Retrieved 6 June 2018.
  56. Bruton, Bronwyn (15 February 2018). "Ethiopia: In the Eye of the Storm". Atlantic Council. Retrieved 6 June 2018.
  57. "Lift the state of emergency in Ethiopia, and lose the country". Tigrai Online. 2 June 2018. Retrieved 6 June 2018.
  58. Gebre, Seifeselassie (28 May 2018). "Is Ethiopia Creating a Revolving Door Criminal Justice System?". Tigrai Online. Retrieved 6 June 2018.
  59. Abera, Etenesh (13 June 2018). "TPLF says Ethiopia's recent Eritrea, economy related decisions have "fundamental flaws"; calls for emergency meeting of EPRDF executive". Addis Standard. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
  60. "One year on, tough times loom for Ethiopia's Abiy Ahmed". Yahoo! News. 31 March 2019. Retrieved 31 March 2019. ... Abiy has touted his moves to improve media freedom – following in the footsteps of Hailemariam, who released several prominent jailed journalists – but instability threatens this progress.
  61. "Ethiopia drops charges against two foreign based media organizations, two individuals". FanaBC. 29 May 2018. Archived from the original on 1 April 2019. Retrieved 31 March 2019. The Federal Attorney General has requested the federal high court to drop charges against two foreign countries-based media organizations-ESAT and OMN as well as Berhanu Nega and Jawar Mohammed.
  62. "New television channels in Ethiopia may threaten state control". The Economist. 9 December 2016. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  63. Yoseph, Nardos (2 August 2009). "New Channels Abundance Increases Competition for TV Ad Revenues". Addis Fortune. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  64. Roth, Kenneth (19 December 2018). "Ethiopia: Events of 2018". World Report 2019. Human Rights Watch. Retrieved 21 March 2019. Ethiopia released journalists who had been wrongfully detained or convicted on politically motivated charges, including prominent writers such as Eskinder Nega and Woubshet Taye, after more than six years in jail. The federal Attorney General's Office dropped all pending charges against bloggers, journalists and diaspora-based media organizations, including the Zone 9 bloggers, Ethiopian Satellite Television (ESAT), and Oromia Media Network (OMN), which had previously faced charges of violence inciting for criticizing the government...OMN and ESAT television stations reopened in Addis Ababa in June, following calls by Prime Minister Abiy for diaspora-based television stations to return. Additionally, the government lifted obstructions to access to more than 250 websites. The restriction on access to the internet and mobile applications introduced during the 2015 protests was also lifted.
  65. Latif Dahir, Abdi (14 December 2018). "For the first time in decades, there are no Ethiopian journalists in prison". Quartz Africa. Retrieved 21 March 2019. ...Abiy Ahmed, who took over in April also released thousands of political prisoners and journalists and dismissed charges against diaspora-based media outlets. Those released included prominent journalists Eskinder Nega, Darsema Sori, and Khalid Mohammed, who were held for years on charges ranging from treason to inciting extremist ideology and planning to overthrow the government.
  66. Bieber, Florian; Tadesse Goshu, Wondemagegn (15 January 2019). "Don't Let Ethiopia Become the Next Yugoslavia". Foreign Policy. Graham Holdings Company. Retrieved 21 March 2019. The process of liberalizing a political system in an ethnically polarized society is dangerous. During the liberalizing moment, newfound freedom of speech can easily focus on finding culprits, singling out particular groups, and bringing up repressed grievances. Furthermore, there is less tradition to distinguish fact from rumor, and thus fearmongering rhetoric can travel quickly and with fewer checks than in established pluralist environments. This is mostly due to social media but also because of a lack of reliable institutions and structures to turn to in a country where institutions have been decimated by years of authoritarian rule.
  67. "Press freedom in Ethiopia has blossomed. Will it last?". The Economist. 16 March 2019. Retrieved 21 March 2019. Two tests of the new opening loom. The first is the willingness of state media to give equal time to the prime minister and his opponents in elections next year. Another will be the openness of Abiy himself to scrutiny: he has given only one press conference and few interviews.
  68. "PM Abiy holds his first ever press conference since inauguration". Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation. 25 August 2018. Archived from the original on 29 August 2018. Retrieved 16 March 2019.
  69. "Ethiopians are going wild for Abiy Ahmed". The Economist. 18 August 2018. Retrieved 17 April 2019. Ethiopia’s state media behave slavishly towards the prime minister, obsessively covering his appearances and seldom airing critical views. Mr Abiy himself never gives interviews and has yet to hold a press conference. Non-state outlets complain that they are no longer invited to official press briefings.
  70. "Ethiopia PM Abiy Ahmed defends his reform plan, calls for genuine democratization". OPride. 18 June 2018. Retrieved 19 June 2018.
  71. Maasho, Aaron (5 June 2018). "Ethiopia opens up telecoms, airline to private, foreign investors". Reuters. Retrieved 5 June 2018.
  72. "ከኢህአዴግ ስራ አስፈፃሚ ኮሚቴ የተሰጠ መግለጫ ግንቦት 28 ቀን 2010" [Statement of the EPRDF Central Committee, 27 Ginbot 2010]. Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (in Amharic). 5 June 2018. Archived from the original on 13 June 2018. Retrieved 6 June 2018.
  73. Berhane, Daniel (5 June 2018). "Ethiopia to embark on major privatization push". Horn Affairs. Retrieved 5 June 2018.
  74. "Ethiopia pushes its privatization agenda". Euromoney. 1 October 2018. The government will seek the full or partial sale of railway projects, hotels, and sugar and other manufacturing industries.
  75. "Ethiopia: Largest Country In The World Without A Stock Exchange". African Leadership. 25 June 2015. Archived from the original on 1 July 2018. Retrieved 19 June 2018.
  76. Maasho, Aaron (20 June 2018). "South Sudan's president and rebel leader meet for peace talks". Reuters. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
  77. "Ethiopia to join Somaliland, UAE port development venture". Al Jazeera. Reuters. 1 March 2018. Retrieved 6 June 2018.
  78. Maasho, Aaron (1 May 2018). "Ethiopia to take stake in Port of Djibouti, its trade gateway -state media". Reuters. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
  79. Maasho, Aaron (3 May 2018). "Ethiopia to take a stake in Sudan's main sea gateway port". Reuters. Retrieved 6 June 2018.
  80. Omondi, George (10 May 2018). "Ethiopia gets Lamu land to cut reliance on Port of Djibouti". Business Daily Africa. Retrieved 6 June 2018.
  81. "The Djibouti City – Addis Ababa Transit and Transport Corridor: Turning Diagnostics into Action". UNCTAD.
  82. Lyons, Terrence (2009). "The Ethiopia-Eritrea Conflict and the Search for Peace in the Horn of Africa". Review of African Political Economy. 36 (120): 167–180. doi:10.1080/03056240903068053. ISSN 0305-6244. JSTOR 27756259.
  83. "Eritrean officials visit Ethiopia for first time in 20 years". BBC News. 26 June 2018. Retrieved 9 July 2018.
  84. "Ethiopia's PM Abiy Ahmed in Eritrea for landmark visit". Al Jazeera English. 8 July 2018. Retrieved 9 July 2018.
  85. "Joint Declaration of Peace and Friendship between Eritrea and Ethiopia". Eritrean Ministry of Information. 9 July 2018. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  86. Dahir, Abdi Latif (9 July 2018). "The giddy excitement that marked Ethiopia and Eritrea's historic summit". Quartz. Retrieved 9 July 2018.
  87. "Ethiopia and Eritrea declare war 'has come to an end'". Al Jazeera English. 9 July 2018. Retrieved 9 July 2018.
  88. subjectsEmailEmailBioBioFollowFollow, Adam TaylorcloseAdam TaylorForeign reporter who writes about a variety of. "Why Eritrea didn't win a Nobel for its peace accord when Ethiopia did". Washington Post. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  89. "Eritrea Says Prize-Winning Ethiopian Peace-Pact Is Falling Short". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
  90. "Row over Africa's largest dam in danger of escalating, warn scientists". Nature. 15 July 2020.
  91. "An Egyptian cyber attack on Ethiopia by hackers is the latest strike over the Grand Dam". Quartz. 27 June 2020.
  92. "Are Egypt and Ethiopia heading for a water war?". The Week. 8 July 2020.
  93. "As Ethiopians Take to the Streets to Protest a Musician's Murder, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Is Stuck in a Precarious Position". Time. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
  94. "Cairo has 'nothing to do' with current tensions in Ethiopia: Egyptian diplomat - Politics - Egypt". Ahram Online. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
  95. "Premier meets with Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Holy Synod". FBC (Fana Broadcasting Corporate S.C.). 6 September 2019. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
  96. "Ethiopian PM attends iftar with Muslim community". Anadolu Agency. 22 May 2019. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
  97. Rahman Alfa Shaban, Abdur (10 September 2018). "Photos: Ethiopia PM dedicates award to agents of democratic change". Africanews. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
  98. Mumbere, Daniel (2 June 2018). "Ethiopia PM wants a more professional army, equipped for modern warfare". Africa News. Retrieved 5 June 2018.
  99. Woldegiorgis, Dawit (31 May 2018). "Let Us Rally Around PM Abiy Ahmed for a Peaceful Transition". ECAD Forum. Retrieved 5 June 2018.
  100. Maasho, Aaron (3 June 2016). "Landlocked Ethiopia plans new navy as part of military reforms". Reuters.
  101. "PM appoints new security chief". The Reporter. 7 June 2018. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
  102. "Five high ranking authorities including Sebhat Nega to retire". Borkena. 15 May 2018. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
  103. "Amid EPRDF Reshuffle, Sebhat Nega, a TPLF Founder, Retires from Think Tank". Ethiopia Observer. 18 May 2018. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
  104. Ahmed, Hadra (23 June 2018). "Explosion Hits Rally for Ethiopian Leader". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 June 2018.
  105. "Ethiopia: Grenade attack caused blast at rally for PM Abiy Ahmed". Al Jazeera. 23 June 2018. Retrieved 24 June 2018.
  106. "Lethal grenade attack at Ethiopia rally". BBC News. 23 June 2018. Retrieved 24 June 2018.
  107. "Twenty people in court in Ethiopia following grenade attack". Reuters. 25 June 2018. Retrieved 27 June 2018.
  108. Schemm, Paul (16 October 2018). "In Ethiopian leader's new cabinet, half the ministers are women". The Washington Post. Retrieved 17 October 2018.
  109. "Ethiopia gets first female defence minister". News24. 16 October 2018. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
  110. "The women smashing Ethiopia's glass ceiling". BBC News. 18 November 2018. Retrieved 15 January 2019.
  111. "Power shift creates new tensions and Tigrayan fears in Ethiopia". The New Humanitarian. 14 February 2019. Retrieved 11 April 2019. ...Already simmering anti-Tigrayan sentiments have led to violence, people told IRIN, from barricading roads and forcibly stopping traffic to looting and attacks on Tigrayan homes and businesses in the Amhara and Oromia regions. In the Tigray region’s capital of Mekelle, more than 750 kilometers north of the political changes taking place in Addis Ababa, many Tigrayans feel increasingly isolated from fellow Ethiopians. “The rest of the country hates us,” Weyanay Gebremedhn, 25, told IRIN. Despite the reforms, Tigrayans say what hasn’t changed is the narrative that they are responsible by association for the ills of the TPLF. Although he now struggles to find work, 35-year-old Huey Berhe, who does mostly odd jobs to pay the bills, said he felt safer living among his own community in Mekelle. Huey said he had been a student at Jimma University in western Ethiopia, until growing ethnic tensions sparked fights on campus and led to Tigrayans being targeted. “I left my studies at Jimma after the trouble there,” he said. “It was bad – it’s not something I like to discuss.” “There is a lot of [lies] and propaganda, and the TPLF has been made the scapegoat for all vice,” said Gebre Weleslase, a Tigrayan law professor at Mekelle University. He criticised Abiy for not condemning ethnic attacks, which he said had contributed to tens of thousands of Tigrayans leaving Amhara for Tigray in recent years.
  112. "International Organization for Migration, "Ethiopia: Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) Tigray Region, Round 14: November – December 2018 – Summary of Key Findings"". ReliefWeb. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
  113. "International Organization for Migration, "Ethiopia: Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) Tigray Region, Round 11: May/June 2018 – Summary of Key Findings"". ReliefWeb. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
  114. "Dimtsi Weyane TV, "Documentary on displaced Tigrayans"". Facebook page of DW-TV. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
  115. "Ethiopian ethnic rivalries threaten Abiy Ahmed's reform agenda". Financial Times. 27 March 2019. Retrieved 11 April 2019. ... To the region’s people, Mr Abiy’s shake-up of the Ethiopian state, which has targeted Tigrayans in top positions, is widely seen as biased and vindictive. Even his rousing talk of national unity is viewed as an attack on the federal constitution, which devolves significant powers to nine ethnically defined territories, including Tigray.
  116. "Ethiopia's Tigray region plans 'Respect the Constitution' rally". Africa News. 7 December 2018. Retrieved 11 April 2019. A rally has been planned for Ethiopia’s northern Tigray regional state’s capital, Mekelle, on Saturday. Dubbed ‘Respect the Constitution,’ it will be the second such in a space of three weeks.
  117. Nearly one million displaced in Ethiopia ethnic violence (Television news production one minute 43 seconds in duration) (YouTube). Ethiopia: Al Jazeera English. 25 August 2018. Retrieved 24 March 2019. The International Committee of the Red Cross says nearly one million Ethiopians have been forced to flee their homes after a surge in local violence.
  118. "Ethiopia tops global list of highest internal displacement in 2018". Norwegian Refugee Counciln. 12 September 2018. Retrieved 11 April 2019. Conflict has uprooted some 1.4 million Ethiopians from their homes since the start of the year, according to the report. This has been largely due to new ethnic clashes in Gedeo and West Guji region in southern Ethiopia, and continued violence in the Oromia-Somali border region.
  119. "Ethnic unrest tarnishes new Ethiopian leader's reforms". Reuters. 24 August 2018.
  120. "Ethiopia's neglected crisis: No easy way home for doubly displaced Gedeos". The New Humanitarian. 28 February 2019.
  121. "Ethiopia Calls on Donors to Help Repatriate Millions of Displaced Persons". 7D News. Retrieved 16 April 2019. ...The majority of the IDPs were uprooted from their villages due to sporadic ethnic conflicts over the last few years. About 1.5 million of them were displaced after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in April last year.
  122. "Ethiopia ethnic tensions dark side of Abiy reforms". The EastAfrican. Nairobi: Nation Media Group. 10 June 2019. Retrieved 12 June 2019. Tensions have long existed between the groups, but last year the Oromo of West Guji attacked the Gedeo living on their side. The clashes led to the world's largest displacement crisis, with over a million mostly ethnic Gedeos displaced, according to government figures.
  123. Gardner, Tom (14 March 2019). "Shadow falls over Ethiopia reforms as warnings of crisis go unheeded". The Guardian. London, UK. Retrieved 23 March 2019. As for Abiy himself, his gravest sin seems to be one of omission. He has not visited camps housing displaced people in Gedeo or Guji (or, reportedly, anywhere in the country) since he took office. He has, rightly, turned away from the authoritarianism of his predecessors, but has failed to get to grips with the security crisis that emerged in its stead. The more cynical aid workers I spoke to suggested he and those around him simply want to "erase" the issue of displaced people before it spoils the new administration's international image.
  124. "Humanitarian Action for Children: ETHIOPIA". United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund. Retrieved 16 April 2019. ... Refugees and internally displaced persons, particularly women and girls, require protection assistance due to reports of the inequitable distribution of humanitarian resources based on ethnicity, as well as violence, rape and intimidation. Protection monitoring remains limited in Ethiopia. Seasonal climate-related floods and droughts affect specific regions, compounding acute food insecurity, malnutrition and water shortages, mostly in pastoral and highland areas.
  125. Tasfaye, Ermias; Manek, Nizar (26 September 2018). "Mob killings split Ethiopians as political fault lines test Abiy's big tent". Ethiopia Insight. Retrieved 5 August 2019.
  126. Fick, Maggie (16 December 2018). "'Nobody will kneel': Tigrayans defiant as Ethiopian leader cracks down". Reuters. Retrieved 23 March 2019. In the birthplace of the armed struggle that propelled Ethiopia's ruling coalition to power 27 years ago, there is growing anger as the country's new prime minister stages a crackdown on the region's once-powerful leaders...
    Now many leading Tigrayans are being detained or sidelined as reformist prime minister, Abiy Ahmed attempts to draw a line under past abuses. One adviser to Abiy told Reuters that the prime minister has sacked 160 army generals for actions he said amount to "state terrorism".
  127. Igunza, Emmanuel (15 November 2018). "Ethiopia's PM takes on the military". BBC News. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
  128. "Ethiopia PM conducting political, ethnic witch-hunt – Tigray chair". Africa News. 20 November 2018. Retrieved 23 March 2019. While they should have gone after an individual, they went after an ethnic group and a party...
    "The arrests… targeting individuals accused of corruption and human rights has veered from course and is being used to bring Tigrayan people to their knees," Debretsion claimed.
  129. Fick, Maggie (16 December 2018). "'Nobody will kneel': Tigrayans defiant as Ethiopian leader cracks down". Reuters. Retrieved 26 March 2019. "There are efforts to corner the people of Tigray," said Getachew Reda, a senior Tigrayan politician and EPRDF member who served as communications minister under Abiy's predecessor. "But we don't believe that's going to work because we are steeped in the tradition not just of defending ourselves but also rising up to whatever challenge".
    He accused Abiy, a member of the country's largest ethnic group, the Oromo, of selective justice.
    Tigrayans were angered when 60 officials, many of them from their region, were detained for suspected human rights abuses and corruption, he said. These included senior executives at the army-run METEC industrial conglomerate.
    "Abiy controls the international narrative but not necessarily the country," Getachew said.
  130. "Why the Tigray region is challenging Ethiopia's reforms". BBC News. Retrieved 16 April 2019.
  131. "Ethiopia PM's crackdown targeting Tigrayans – Ex-Minister". Africa News. 17 December 2018. Retrieved 16 April 2019.
  132. "Ethiopian ethnic rivalries threaten Abiy Ahmed's reform agenda". Financial Times. 27 March 2019. Retrieved 11 April 2019. ... “Concentrating on one ethnic group is dangerous,” said Debretsion Gebremichael, acting president of the Tigray region, who added that Mr Abiy’s crackdown on corruption had an anti-Tigrayan bias. Adding that he initially opposed Mr Abiy’s selection as chairman of the ruling coalition and hence prime minister last year, he said: “I told him: ‘You are immature. You are not the right candidate’....Mr Abiy identifies as Oromo, the largest ethnic group with 35 per cent of Ethiopia’s population. The first prime minister in the nation’s history from Oromia, he is accused of stirring tensions by calling his political opponents “daytime hyenas”, a phrase interpreted by some Tigrayans as an ethnic slur. ”
  133. "Internet cut in Ethiopia amid unrest following killing of singer". NetBlocks. 30 June 2020. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  134. Hamilton, Isobel Asher. "Ethiopia's government shut down the entire country's internet and 80 people have been killed in protests following the assassination of a popular musician". Business Insider. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  135. "Ethiopia's ruling coalition agrees to form single party ahead of 2020 vote". Reuters. 21 November 2019. Retrieved 2 January 2020.
  136. Wrong, Michela (3 September 2018). "Ethiopia, Eritrea and the Perils of Reform". Survival. 60 (5): 49–57. doi:10.1080/00396338.2018.1518369. ISSN 0039-6338.
  137. Gardner, Tom. "Abiy Ahmed Is Not a Populist". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  138. "Prime Minister Abiy leaves for Uganda – display page – ebc". www.ebc.et. Archived from the original on 25 May 2019. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
  139. Arega, Fitsum (24 July 2018). "HH Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has awarded the Presidential Medal, The Zayed medal to HE Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed & HE President Isaias Afeworki for bringing peace between the two countries. This is the highest medal in the UAE. #Eriteria #Ethiopia #UAEpic.twitter.com/d7F4Idycu1". @fitsumaregaa. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
  140. "FBC (Fana Broadcasting Corporate S.C.)". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
  141. TesfaNews (16 September 2018). "Leaders of Eritrea and Ethiopia Received Saudi Arabia's Highest Honour". TesfaNews. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
  142. O'Brien, Tim. "Mary Robinson to receive Tipperary international peace award". The Irish Times. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  143. admin. "Ethiopian Prime Minister among 100 most influential Africans of 2018 | nazret.com". Retrieved 16 May 2019.
  144. "PM Dr Abiy named African of the Year 2018". Fanabc. Archived from the original on 11 October 2019. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
  145. "The 100 Most Influential People of 2019". TIME. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
  146. "Foreign Policy's 100 Global Thinkers". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
  147. AfricaNews (20 December 2018). "2018 Personality of the Year nominee: Ethiopia PM Abiy Ahmed". Africanews. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
  148. AfricaNews (12 February 2019). "Ethiopia PM bags 2018 African Gender Awards plaque". Africanews. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
  149. "Ibraheem Ceesay". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
  150. "Abiy Ahmed Ali, Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia laureate of the 2019 edition of the Félix Houphouët-Boigny – UNESCO Peace Prize". UNESCO. 2 May 2019. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
  151. "PM hosts Grand Iftar evening for Muslim community | The Reporter Ethiopia English". www.thereporterethiopia.com. Retrieved 27 May 2019.
  152. "Chatham House Prize 2019 Nominees". Chatham House. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  153. "Ethiopian Prime Minister Receives 2019 World Tourism Award". prensa-latina.cu. Retrieved 20 August 2019.
  154. Germany, hessenschau de, Frankfurt (27 August 2019). "Äthiopiens Hoffnungsträger Abiy erhält den Hessischen Friedenspreis". hessenschau.de (in German). Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  155. "Premier receives award from Association of Political Consultants Africa". Fanabc. Archived from the original on 11 October 2019. Retrieved 13 September 2019.
  156. "Ethiopia's PM Dr Abiy Wins 2019 Nobel Peace Prize". Fanabc. Archived from the original on 11 October 2019. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
Political offices
Preceded by
Hailemariam Desalegn		 Prime Minister of Ethiopia
2018–present		 Incumbent
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.