A rare honor has been pinned on Ethiopia and its strong man. The country, which is in news these days very prominently across Africa and beyond, has now grabbed the global headlines. Its young and erudite Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has won the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to achieve peace with neighboring Eritrea.
Is it a sheer coincidence that Abiy, who has a doctorate degree in peacemaking (conflict resolution) and served as a U.N. peacekeeper in Rwanda after the 1994 genocide has now become the recipient of World Peace Prize.
The Nobel statement issued to announce him getting the coveted prize, which very few heads of state have got over the years mentions about the path breaking efforts he made since coming to power to build bridges with neighboring Eritrea. The decades long conflict between the two countries had consumed lives of over 70,000 people, destabilized both economies and left many orphans and widows.
Ahmed worked with Eritrea’s President Isaias Afwerki for ironing out the decades long enmity and bitterness for brokering the peace agreement. Abiy Ahmed’s unconditional willingness to accept the arbitration ruling of an international boundary commission in 2002, was a watershed decision, which was hailed by many outside Africa, but questioned by an equal number of people in his homeland.
The enmity between the two nations for more than half a century was melted away when Abiy set a dialogue path, which his predecessors had shunned all along. The near success in the deal may be one reason for the Nobel Committee to bestow the world’s highest honor on Abiy. But more than that, he proved to be a torch bearer of democracy and human freedom when he publicly supported dissent and ended the cult of sending dissenters in jail, exile or eliminating them, which is very common in Africa.
During Ahmed’s first 100 days as prime minister he has also lifted he country’s state of emergency, granting amnesty to thousands of political prisoners, discontinuing media censorship, legalizing outlawed opposition groups, dismissing military and civilian leaders who were suspected of corruption, and significantly increasing the influence of women in Ethiopian political and community life.
