Table of Contents
NOBEL PRIZE
- 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 is 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).
- Abiy was awarded the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in ending the 20-year post-war territorial stalemate between Ethiopia and Eritrea.
ETHIOPIA – ERITREA
EARLY LIFE
- Abiy Ahmed was born in the town of Beshasha in the historic Kaffa Province of Ethiopia on 15 August 1976. His deceased father, Ahmed Ali, (and had four wives), while his deceased mother, Tezeta Wolde,was an Orthodox Christian Amhara.
- Abiy is the 13th child of his polygamous father and the sixth and youngest child of his mother.
- 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.
EDUCATION
- While serving in the Ethiopian National Defense Force, Abiy received his first degree, a Bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from the Microlink Information Technology College in Addis Ababa in 2001.
- Abiy holds a Master of Arts in Transformational Leadership earned from the business school at Greenwich University, London.He also holds a Master of Business Administration from the Leadstar College of Management and Leadership in Addis Ababa in partnership with Ashland University in 2013.
- Abiy completed his Ph.D. in 2017 at the Institute for Peace and Security Studies, Addis Ababa University.
CAREER
- As a teenager and in early 1991,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.
- In the Ethio-Eritrea War between 1998 and 2000, he led an intelligence team to discover positions of the Eritrean Defence Forces
POLITICS
- He started his political career as a member of the ODP (Oromo Democratic Party). The ODP is the ruling party in Oromia Region since 1991.
- He became a member of the central committee of ODP and congress member of the Executive Committee of the EPRDF – in quick succession.
- 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.
POLITICS
- Following three years of protest and unrest, on 15 February 2018 the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, announced his resignation – meaning that he also resigned from the post of EPRDF Chairman.
- he 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.
- 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
REFORMS
- 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.In May 2018 alone the Oromo region pardoned over 7,600 prisoners.
- 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.
- 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 marking a landmark shift in the country’s state-oriented development model
REFORMS
- State monopolies in the telecommunications, aviation, electricity, and logistics sectors are to be ended and those industries opened up to private sector competition.
- 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.
- The 2019 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed who made peace last year with bitter foe Eritrea. Mr Abiy’s peace deal with Eritrea ended a 20-year military stalemate following their 1998-2000 border war.He was named as the winner of the 100th Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, where he will receive the award in December.
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