Nobel peace prize winner 2019: Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopian prime minister

The award recognizes efforts for peace, especially in resolving border conflicts in Eritrea.

The prime minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed, has won the Nobel Peace Prize 2019, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has announced.

Photo Credit: BBC

Berit Reiss-Andersen, chairman of the committee, said the award recognized Abiy's "efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and in particular his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighbouring Eritrea."

Elected in April last year, one of Abiy's greatest victories was the peace agreement, signed in July last year, which ended an almost 20-year military stalemate with Eritrea after their 1998-2000 border war.

Abiy has also implemented reforms at home, drastically changing the atmosphere in what was known as one of the more repressive states in Africa. His public denunciation of previous abuses by previous rulers drew a line between his administration and that of his predecessors, as well as the appointment of former dissidents in higher positions, as well as a large number of women.

“When Abiy Ahmed became prime minister, he made it clear he wished to resume peace talks with Eritrea … In close cooperation with the president of Eritrea, he quickly worked out the principles for a peace agreement,” the committee said.

Other potential winners eligible for this year's prize were 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, Angela Merkel, German Chancellor and Hong Kong activists.

The New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, whose reaction to the Christchurch shooting was widely praised, was also thought of in the context, as did Alexis Tsipras and Zoran Zaev, the Prime Ministers of Greece and Northern Macedonia, who ended 30 years of bitterness between their countries.

Ninety-nine Nobel Peace Prizes have been awarded since 1901 to individuals and 24 organizations. While the other Nobel Prize winners have been announced in Stockholm, the peace prize has been awarded in the Norwegian capital Oslo.

Last year the prize - a gold medal, a diploma and SKr9m (€ 828,000) - went to two champions who fight sexual violence, Congolese gynaecologist Denis Mukwege and Yazidi activist Nadia Murad.

According to the Nobel Peace Prize, there were 301 candidates for this year's prize. However, the committee only announces the names of the nominees after 50 years.

Abiy, 43, has a reputation as a daring leader who is willing to take risks to tackle decades-old problems.

A former military officer specializing in cyber intelligence surprised and delighted tens of millions of people in East Africa with the peace agreement with Eritrea.

The conflict had cost both countries a lot of money and lives and was a brake on development in much of the volatile region.

More recently, Abiy played a key role in mediating in a political agreement in neighbouring Sudan, bringing an end to chaotic violence after the fall of the experienced dictator Omar al-Bashir, while retaining many of the benefits or pro-democracy protesters.

Abiy, who often relies on bold personal initiatives and charisma to foster change rather than work through government institutions, is the first leader of Ethiopia's largest ethnic community, the Oromo, who has been complaining about economic, cultural and political marginalization for decades and has appointed women to a series of striking jobs, including semi-ministerial posts.

Domestic reforms include the lifting of prohibitions on political parties, the release of imprisoned journalists and the shooting of series or hitherto unassailable officials, some accused or tortured.

In Addis Ababa, the capital, huge people welcome exiled dissidents into their homes. Residents who were once afraid of publicly discussing politics are now talking little or nothing else. Flags and symbols that have long been banned by the Revolutionary Democratic Front of the Ethiopian People fly over the city.

Other initiatives, such as planting millions of trees, have further international support and sympathy.

Abiy, born in western Ethiopia, joined the resistance against Mengistu Haile Mariam as a teenager before joining the armed forces and reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel. He has a PhD in peace and security studies. After a stint with the cyber intelligence service of Ethiopia, politics came in eight years ago and quickly rose into the ranks of the Oromo faction of the EPRDF, historically at odds with the Tigrayans.

Analysts say that Abiy's mixed Christian and Islamic background and that fluent speaking in three of the country's most important languages ​​enables the new leader to bridge the municipal and sectarian differences.

A personal acquaintance described the new Nobel Prize winner as "always looking ahead to the future" in an interview with the Guardian shortly after Abiy survived an apparent assassination attempt in 2018. Former colleagues said that shelves of books about religion, philosophy and science-filled the office of Abiy. “He is physically active and very well organised ... He did not have a secretary because he wanted his office to be accessible. His office door was literally never closed,” one said.