Why Ethopia’s Abiy Ahmed won Nobel Peace Prize

The 2019 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, the awards committee announced in Norway on Friday.

Out of a total of 301 candidates that had been nominated for the prestigious award, including 223 individuals and 78 organisations, Abiy Ahmaed was awarded the prize for his efforts to “achieve peace and international cooperation”.

Ethiopia reached a peace deal with Eritrea last year, ending a 20-year military stalemate following their 1998-2000 border war.

READ ALSO Breaking: Ethiopia’s Abiy Ahmed wins Nobel Peace Prize

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He was named as the winner of the 100th Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo.

The prize, worth nine million Swedish crowns (about £730,000; $900,000), will be awarded in Oslo in December.

After becoming prime minister in April 2018, Mr Abiy introduced massive liberalising reforms to Ethiopia, shaking up what was an extremely tightly controlled nation.

He freed thousands of opposition activists from jail and allowed exiled dissidents to return home. Most importantly, he signed a peace deal with Ethiopia’s neighbour Eritrea, ending a two-decade conflict.

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But his reforms also lifted the lid on Ethiopia’s ethnic tensions, and the resulting violence forced some 2.5 million people from their homes.

Abiy Ahmed is an Ethiopian politician serving since 2 April 2018 as the fourth and current prime minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.

He remains chairman of both the ruling EPRDF (Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front) and the ODP (Oromo Democratic Party) (which is one of the four coalition parties of the EPRDF)

A former army intelligence officer, Abiy, since becoming prime minister, has launched a wide programme of political and economic reforms, not all of which have met with favour by supporters of the federalism-based constitution/system of Ethiopia and in Tigray.