Abiy initially embarked on sweeping political reforms,releasing thousands of political prisoners and unbanning opposition groups. He was awarded the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize "for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation,and in particular for his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighbouring Eritrea".[8] As part of his economic reforms,Abiy pursued large-scale privatisation of state-owned enterprises and liberalised several key sectors,including the Ethiopian Airlines. In 2019,he disbanded the EPRDF and formed his own party,the Prosperity Party.[9][10]
Following rising ethnic and political tensions in 2020,the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) attacked the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) Northern Command,starting the 2-year Tigray War between the combined forces of the ENDF and the Eritrean army against forces loyal to the TPLF and the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA). The war resulted in severe humanitarian crises,widespread displacement,and thousands of deaths.[11] After the Pretoria Agreement ended the Tigray War,Abiy began an effort in 2023 to consolidate all remaining regional militias into the ENDF. Fano rebuffed requests to disarm and integrate into federal forces,instead attacking the ENDF and beginning the War in Amhara.
Abiy Ahmed was born in the small town of Beshasha,Ethiopia.[19][20][21][22] His father,Ahmed Ali,was a respected Muslim Oromo elder who donated much of to land to build a mosque during the reign of Haile Selassie. While his mother,Tezeta Wolde,lived in a dilapidated house and sold traditional tej wine for a living.[23] In a 2018 interview with The New York Times,Abiy stated that his mother "was Amhara and Orthodox Christian" and "converted to Islam when she married".[24] However,in a 2021 Oromia Broadcasting Network interview redistributed on YouTube,Abiy asserted that his parents were both Oromo.[25]
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.[19] His childhood name was Abiyot (English:"Revolution"). The name was sometimes given to children in the aftermath of the Ethiopian Revolution in the mid-1970s.[19] As a child,Abiy was sent to Agaro to attend the local primary school and later continued his studies at local secondary school in Agaro town.[19]
Military and intelligence career
At the age of 14,in early 1991,[26] he joined the armed struggle against the Marxist–Leninistregime of Mengistu Haile Mariam after the death of his oldest brother. He was a child soldier,affiliated to the Oromo People's Democratic Organization (OPDO),which at that time was a tiny organization of only around 200 fighters part of the large coalition army of the EPRDF which had over 100,000 fighters that resulted in the regime's fall later that year.[27][19][28] As there were only so few OPDO 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.[27]
In the Eritrean–Ethiopian War that occurred between 1998 and 2000,he led an intelligence team to discover positions of the Eritrean Defence Forces.[30] During the final days of the war in June 2000,he narrowly escaped an Eritrean artillery attack which had killed most his unit. Abiy later recounted to fellow churchmen that it had been the moment he had a revelation and decided to convert to Pentecostal Christianity.[3]
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.[27][31] He brought calm and peace in a situation of communal tensions accompanying the clashes.[27] 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.[30]
INSA
In 2006,Abiy was one of the co-founders of the Information Network Security Agency (INSA),where he worked in different positions.[19] The Ethiopian government established INSA with support from the United States,modeling it after the American's National Security Agency (NSA). Initially the agency was tasked with intercepting and analyzing intelligence,particularly from neighboring Somalia at the time of the US backed 2006 invasion,but the agency gradually expanded its role into domestic surveillance. Through INSA,Abiy Ahmed ascended through the ranks of government and became influential politically.[5] For two years,he was acting director of INSA due to the director's leave of absence.[19] 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[32][27] 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 Oromo Democratic Party (ODP).[33] The ODP has been the ruling party in Oromia Region since 1991 and also one of four coalition parties of the ruling coalition in Ethiopia,the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). He became a member of the central committee of ODP and congress member of the executive committee of the EPRDF in quick succession.[27] In the 2010 national election,Abiy represented the district 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.[32]
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).[19][34] 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.[35]
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.[36] 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.[27]
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.[37][38] 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.[39] 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.[40]
As head of the ODP Secretariat from October 2017,Abiy facilitated the formation of a new alliance between the Oromo and Amhara groups,which together constitute two-thirds of the Ethiopian population.[41]
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.[42][43] 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.[36] 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.[36]
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 Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front.[44][37]
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. With the EPRDF's large majority in Parliament,its EPRDF chairman was all but assured of becoming 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:Oromo Democratic Party (ODP),Amhara Democratic Party (ADP),Southern Ethiopian People's Democratic Movement (SEPDM) and Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF).[45]
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 favorite 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.[46] 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.[35]
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.[47]
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 for 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.[7] On 2 April 2018,Abiy Ahmed was elected as Prime Minister of Ethiopia by the House of Representatives and sworn in.[2]
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 a historical high and some political observers argued that Abiy was overwhelmingly more popular than the ruling party coalition,the EPRDF.[7]
Abiy delivering his acceptance speech after receiving the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize
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.[48][49][50] In May 2018 alone the Oromo region pardoned over 7,600 prisoners.[51] 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.[52]
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.[53] 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".[54] 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.[55]
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.[50] 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.[56] This followed the additional pardon of 304 prisoners (289 of which had been sentenced on terrorism-related charges) on 15 June.[57]
Abiy speaking at the Green Legacy Initiative,Addis Ababa,21 June 2024
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.[58]
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".[59] 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.[60] 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.[61]
Transparency
In 2018,to expand the free press in Ethiopia,Abiy invited exiled media outlets to return.[62][63][64][65][66][67][68] One of the media outlets invited to return was ESAT (which had called for the genocide of Ethiopian Tigrayans).[69][70][71] However,since assuming office in April 2018,Abiy himself had,as of March 2019,only given one press conference,[72] on 25 August 2018 and around five months after he assumed office,where he answered questions from journalists. As of 21March2019,[update] he has not given another press conference where he has not refused to answer questions from journalists (rather than reading prepared statements).[73][74][75]
According to the NGOs Human Rights Watch,Committee to Protect Journalists and Amnesty International,Abiy's government has since mid 2019 been arresting Ethiopian journalists and closing media outlets (except for ESAT-TV).[76][77][78][79][80][81] From the international media outlets,his government has suspended the press license of Reuters's correspondent,and issued a warning letter to the correspondents of both BBC and Deutsche Welle for what the government described as "violation of the rules of media broadcasting".[82][83][84] As of June 2022,18 journalists were arrested on allegation of "inciting violence" while reporting for independent media outlets or YouTube channels.[85]
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.[86]
State monopolies in the telecommunications,aviation,electricity,and logistics sectors are to be ended and those industries opened up to private sector competition.[87] 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.[88] State-owned enterprises in sectors deemed less critical,including railway operators,sugar,industrial parks,hotels and various manufacturing firms,may be fully privatised.[89]
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.[88][86]
In June 2018,Abiy announced the government's intention to establish an Ethiopian stock exchange in tandem with the privatization of state-owned enterprises.[90] As of 2015,Ethiopia was the largest country in the world,in terms of both population and gross domestic product,without a stock exchange.[91]
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.[48]
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 Riek Machar in an attempt to encourage peace talks.[92]
In February 2023,French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed Abiy Ahmed in Paris.[94] In April 2023,Abiy met with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Addis Ababa.[95] In early May 2023,German Chancellor Olaf Scholz met with Abiy Ahmed in Addis Ababa to normalize relations between Germany and Ethiopia that had been strained by the Tigray War.[96]
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 Somaliland region located in northern Somalia as part of a joint venture with DP World.[99] 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.[100]
Two days later a similar agreement was signed with the Sudanese government granting Ethiopia an ownership stake in the 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.[101] 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.[102] 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.[86] All these developments would reduce Ethiopian reliance on Djibouti's port which,since 1998,has handled almost all of Ethiopia's maritime traffic.[103][101]
Abiy with Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki in March 2019
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.[86] 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.[104]
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.[105]
Abiy with British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly on 8 December 2022
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.[106] 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.[107][108][109] Abiy was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for his efforts in ending the war.[8]
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.[110] 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."[111]
In October 2023,Abiy said that the secession of Eritrea from Ethiopia in 1993 was a historical mistake that threatens the existence of landlocked Ethiopia,saying that "In 2030 we are projected to have a population of 150 million. 150 million people can't live in a geographic prison."[112] He said Ethiopia has "natural rights" to direct access to the Red Sea and if denied,"there will be no fairness and justice and if there is no fairness and justice,it's a matter of time,we will fight".[113]
In June 2021,representatives from multiple countries called for the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Abiy to be re-considered because of the war crimes committed in Tigray.[114][115] In an opinion piece,Simon Tisdall,one-time foreign editor of The Guardian,wrote that Abiy "should hand back his Nobel Peace Prize over his actions in the breakaway region".[116]
A person on a petition organization called Change.org launched a campaign to gather 35,000 signatures for revoking his Peace Prize;as of September 2021,nearly 30,000 have been obtained.[117]
Egypt
The dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam has become a national preoccupation in both countries.[118][119] Abiy has warned:"No force can stop Ethiopia from building a dam. If there is need to go to war,we could get millions readied."[120]
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.[121] An Egyptian diplomat responded by saying that Egypt "has nothing to do with current tensions in Ethiopia".[122]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".[121]
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.[123][124] 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.[125]
Security sector reform
Abiy with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Addis Ababa on 15 March 2023
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.[126] This move is considered likely to face resistance from TPLF hardliners,who occupy much of the military high command.[127]
Abiy with military commanders in February 2019
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."[128] 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.
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.[132][133][134][135]
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.[136] The new cabinet restructure included the first female president,Sahle-Work Zewde;the first female minister of the Ministry of Defense,Aisha Mohammed Musa;[137] 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.[138]
According to NGOs like Human Rights Watch and 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.[139][140] In 2020,Internet shutdowns by the Ethiopian government had been described as "frequently deployed".[141]Access Now said that shutdowns have become a "go-to tool for authorities to muzzle unrest and activism."[141] His government will cut internet as and when,"it's neither water nor air" have said Abiy.[142][143]
In June 2020,Abiy and the National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) postponed parliamentary elections because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The postponement was criticised,especially by the opposition,[145][146] and questions were raised about the delay's constitutional legitimacy.[147] An election was eventually held in 2021. The African Union described the election as an improvement compared to the 2015 election and positive overall,urging the government to continue the commitment to democracy.[148]
Abiy has been described as a "liberal populist" by the academic and journalist Abiye Teklemariam and the influential Oromo activist Jawar Mohammed.[citation needed] Alemayehu Weldemariam,a U.S.-based Ethiopian lawyer and public intellectual,has called Abiy "an opportunistic populist jockeying for power on a democratizing platform."[149] On the other hand,Tom Gardner argues in Foreign Policy that he's not a populist,but more of a liberal democrat. However,Gardner 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."[149]
Abiy's government was accused of authoritarianism and restricting freedom of the press,especially since the start of the Tigray War. Numerous watchdogs and human rights groups accused Abiy's government of "increasingly intimidating" the media as well as harassing opponents to propel unrest.[150][who?] In 2019 World Press Freedom Index,Ethiopia improved the rank by jumping forty positions from 150 to 110 out of 180 countries.[151] In 2021,46 journalists were detained,making Ethiopia the worst jailer in Africa. Journalist Gobeze Sisay was arrested by unknown plainclothes officers in his home on 1 May. On 3 May,the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) released statement about Gobez Sisay's whereabout.[152][153][154][155] Similarly,the founder of Terara Network was arrested in Addis Ababa on 10 December 2021 in allegation of "disseminating misinformation",which was transferred to Sabata Daliti police station in Oromia Special Zone. He was released on 5 April 2022 with bail of 50,000 Ethiopian birr.[156][157][158]
Personal life
Abiy married Zinash Tayachew,an Amhara woman from Gondar,[19][159] while both were serving in the Ethiopian National Defense Force.[28] They are the parents of three daughters and one adopted son.[28] Abiy speaks Oromo,Amharic,Tigrinya and English.[27] He is a fitness aficionado and frequents physical and gym activities in Addis Ababa.[28]
While serving in the Ethiopian National Defense Force,Abiy received his first degree,a bachelor's degree in computer engineering[162] from the Microlink Information Technology College in Addis Ababa in 2009.[163]
Abiy,who had started his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) work as a regular student,[167] submitted his PhD thesis in 2016,[168] and defended it in 2017[169][170][32] at the Institute for Peace and Security Studies,Addis Ababa University. He did his PhD 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",supervised by Amr Abdallah[168]). In 2022,Alex de Waal described Abiy's PhD thesis as constituting an anecdote on an event in which an individual friendship between people of opposite sides augmented social capital and inspired the resolution of a local violent conflict in Jimma Zone. De Waal saw the thesis as "perhaps enough for an undergraduate paper",but not deep enough to cover social capital,background literature on armed conflict and resolution,or literature on "identity,nationalism and conflict".[169] In 2023,de Waal and colleagues recommended that Addis Ababa University re-examine Abiy's PhD thesis for plagiarism,based on their claim of the presence of plagiarism on every page of Chapter 2 of the thesis.[171]
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 Cherinet Hariffo Education Advocate From Ethiopia and Nigerian humanitarian activist Zannah Mustapha[176]
↑"Prime Minister". The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia's Office of the Prime Minister. Archived from the original on 20 April 2019. Retrieved 6 June 2019. H.E. Abiy Ahmed Ali (PhD) is the fourth Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
↑Gardner, Tom (27 June 2024). The Abiy Project God, Power and War in the New Ethiopia. Hurst. p.385.
↑"Ethiopia: News - Amhara Opposition Party Requests PM Abiy to Appear Before Lawmakers, Parliament Session On Recent Killing in Western Oromia". AllAfrica. 25 June 2022. Retrieved 17 April 2023. The opposition National Movement of Amhara (NaMA) requested Speaker of the House of People's Representatives, Tagesse Chafo, to call on Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to appear before Parliament to explain why his government is "unable to stop the ongoing genocide against the people of Amhara, and why it has not been able to provide adequate support to the victims who are displaced by the recent attack in Western Oromia, at a time when PM Abiy Ahmed and his government repeatedly state that "they have built the capacity and enough security forces to ensure the security of our country and its people."
↑"Statement on the Ongoing Violence Against the Amhara People". Lemkin Institute. Since 2018, when the Oromo-backed Prosperity Party came into power (led by 2019 Nobel Prize laureate Abiy Ahmed Ali), the Amhara people have continued to suffer severely, and their fundamental human rights have been heavily violated. Abiy's government amnestied previously exiled OLA members. The atrocity crimes committed against the Amhara people since 2018 include mass killings and summary executions, ethnic cleansing, abduction of children, forced disappearances, measures intended to prevent births, the forcible transfer of children of the group to another group, rape and other forms of sexual violence, and looting.
↑"Abiy Ahmed Ali". DW.com (in Swahili). 28 March 2018. Archived from the original on 6 May 2018. Retrieved 5 May 2018. Abiy Ahmed alizaliwa August 15, 1976 nchini Ethiopia (Abiy Ahmed was born on August 15, 1976 in Ethiopia)
↑Endeshaw, Dawit (31 March 2018). "The rise of Abiy "Abiyot" Ahmed". The Reporter. Archived from the original on 14 October 2019. 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 (No statistical evidence exists to support this claim). 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.
↑"ኦሮሚያ፣ የ"ኢኮኖሚ አብዮት""[Oromia, the "Economy Revolution"]. Deutsche Welle (in Amharic). 10 March 2017. Archived from the original on 19 February 2018. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
↑"One year on, tough times loom for Ethiopia's Abiy Ahmed". Yahoo! News. 31 March 2019. Archived from the original on 1 April 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.
↑Roth, Kenneth (19 December 2018). "Ethiopia: Events of 2018". World Report 2019. Human Rights Watch. Archived from the original on 19 March 2019. Retrieved 21 March 2019. After years of widespread protests against government policies, and brutal security force repression, the human rights landscape transformed in 2018 after Abiy Ahmed became prime minister in April. The government lifted the state of emergency in June and released thousands of political prisoners from detention, including journalists and key opposition leaders such as Eskinder Nega and Merera Gudina. The government lifted restrictions on access to the internet, admitted that security forces relied on torture, committed to legal reforms of repressive laws and introduced numerous other reforms, paving the way for improved respect for human rights... Parliament lifted the ban on three opposition groups, Ginbot 7, Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), and Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) in June. The government had used the proscription as a pretext for brutal crackdowns on opposition members, activists, and journalists suspected of affiliation with the groups. Many members of these and other groups are now returning to Ethiopia from exile...
With the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) controlling 100 percent of the seats in parliament, the institutional and legal impediments for sustained political space remain a challenge. Accountability for years of abuses, including torture and extrajudicial killings, and opening the space for political parties and civil society remain significant challenges for the new administration. There are indications that the reform process may ultimately be hindered by a lack of independent institutions to carry forward changes...
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.
↑Latif Dahir, Abdi (14 December 2018). "For the first time in decades, there are no Ethiopian journalists in prison". Quartz Africa. Archived from the original on 21 March 2019. 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.
↑Bieber, Florian; Tadesse Goshu, Wondemagegn (15 January 2019). "Don't Let Ethiopia Become the Next Yugoslavia". Foreign Policy. Graham Holdings Company. Archived from the original on 21 March 2019. 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.
↑"Why ESAT and Messay Mekonen called for genocide on the people of Tigray?". Horn Affairs. 15 November 2016. Archived from the original on 11 October 2019. Retrieved 29 July 2019. Mr. Messay Mekonon has called a genocide attack to such civil population, which are the indigenous people of Tigray-Ethiopia in his satellite TV called ESAT on 4 September 2016
↑"ESAT Radio and Television: The Voice of Genocide". Horn Affairs. 23 August 2017. Archived from the original on 11 October 2019. Retrieved 29 July 2019. ESAT television, in a public address it made to the people of Gondar, on August 06, 2016, ESAT journalist Mesay Mekonnen broadcast that "the difficulty that we (Ethiopians) are facing now is not between the oppressor government/regime and the oppressed people, as other countries are facing. What we Ethiopians are now facing is between a small minority ethnic group, representing five percent of the Ethiopian population, who wants to rule Ethiopia subjugating others and the subjugated peoples. And the solution for what we are facing at this time is "drying the water so as to catch (kill) the fish."
↑"ESAT TV, stop your hate propaganda against the people of Tigrai". Tigrai Online. 27 January 2013. Archived from the original on 11 October 2019. Retrieved 29 July 2019. ESAT's main objective is to provide thinly veiled poisonous hate propaganda against the people of Tigrai. Financed by the traditional enemies of Ethiopia this divisive and very dangerous media outlet has been pumping out thousands of articles, cyber TV programs and radio programs. Majority of those programs are designed to create a permanent discord between the general Ethiopian population and the people of Tigrai.
↑"Press freedom in Ethiopia has blossomed. Will it last?". The Economist. 16 March 2019. Archived from the original on 21 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.
↑"Ethiopians are going wild for Abiy Ahmed". The Economist. 18 August 2018. Archived from the original on 17 April 2019. 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.
↑"Nobel peace prize winner Abiy Ahmed embroiled in media row". The Guardian. 8 December 2019. Archived from the original on 12 December 2020. Retrieved 12 December 2020. Senior officials of the Norwegian Nobel Institute have said the 2019 winner's refusal to attend any event where he could be asked questions publicly is "highly problematic". Olav Njølstad, the secretary of the Nobel committee, said it would "very much have wanted Abiy to engage with the press during his stay in Oslo". "We strongly believe that freedom of expression and a free and independent press are vital components of peace … Moreover, some former Nobel peace prize laureates have received the prize in recognition of their efforts in favour of these very rights and freedoms," he said. Nobel peace prize laureates traditionally hold a news conference a day before the official ceremony, but Abiy has told the Norwegian Nobel committee he does not intend to do so.
↑"Record number of journalists jailed worldwide". Committee to Protect Journalists. Archived from the original on 15 December 2020. Retrieved 15 December 2020. Countries where the number of jailed journalists rose significantly include Belarus, where mass protests have ensued over the disputed re-election of the long-time president, and Ethiopia, where political unrest has degenerated into armed conflict.
↑"Dawit Kebede imprisoned". Committee to Protect Journalists. Archived from the original on 15 December 2020. Retrieved 15 December 2020. The office of the federal attorney general did not respond to a December 2020 email requesting comment on Dawit's arrest. When CPJ reached him via messaging app, Federal Police spokesperson Jeylan Abdi said he did not know about Dawit's case and referred CPJ to the prime minister's office for comment. CPJ emailed that office on December 3 and did not receive any response.
↑"Ethiopia suspends Reuters in-country correspondent's licence". Ahram online. Archived from the original on 1 December 2020. Retrieved 12 December 2020. Ethiopian Broadcasting Authority (EBA) has suspended the press license of Reuters correspondent in the country Giulia Paravicini, for an unspecified amount of time after a warning letter was issued to the correspondent. The Authority said that the decision has been due to the "false and biased" reporting by the news agency's correspondent on Ethiopia's current affairs and coverage of the fighting in the Tigray region, which "misleads the world and causes international pressure to mount on Ethiopia." The Authority has also issued a warning letter to the correspondents of both BBC and Deutsche Welle for what it described as "violation of the rules of media broadcasting."
↑"Ethiopia Expels Crisis Group Senior Analyst". International Crisis Group. 22 November 2020. Archived from the original on 10 December 2020. Retrieved 17 December 2020. On 20 November, immigration officials in Addis Ababa summoned Crisis Group's Ethiopia Senior Analyst William Davison and informed him he would need to leave the country immediately. He flew to the UK in the early hours of 21 November. Ethiopian authorities have yet to offer a formal reason for the decision. In an earlier tweet, an official in the Prime Minister's office said Mr. Davison's work permit had been revoked, citing alleged labour law breaches. Crisis Group has been transparent and truthful in all representations it has made regarding Mr. Davison's employment. Ultimately, there is little doubt that the reason for his deportation relates to the current tense situation in the country and the authorities' increasing sensitivity to points of view that do not hew to its line. It is noteworthy that around the time Mr. Davison was expelled, authorities also warned the news agency Reuters' Ethiopia correspondent and the BBC and Deutsche Welle stations. Mr. Davison's expulsion comes at a difficult and painful moment for Ethiopia. On 4 November, Africa's second most populous country plunged into a serious conflict between federal troops and security forces from the Tigray region, one of Ethiopia's ten states. The conflict has already cost hundreds of lives and sent tens of thousands of refugees into neighbouring Sudan. Crisis Group and its analysts do not take sides. Their responsibility is to present as faithfully as possible the viewpoints of the relevant parties; their mandate is to prevent and resolve deadly conflicts; their duty is to the civilians caught in their midst. Accordingly, and from the outset, Crisis Group has sought to explain the perspectives of the federal authorities and of the Tigrayan leadership, pressed for an end to hostilities and kept urging the parties to explore a negotiated solution and resolve their differences through political means.
↑"Ethiopia: Opposition Figures Held Without Charge". Human Rights Watch. 15 August 2020. Archived from the original on 12 December 2020. Retrieved 12 December 2020. Ethiopian authorities have been detaining dozens of opposition members and journalists for prolonged periods and often without charge since late June 2020, raising serious rights concerns.
↑"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.
↑"Ethiopia pushes its privatization agenda". Euromoney. 1 October 2018. Archived from the original on 11 October 2019. Retrieved 11 October 2019. The government will seek the full or partial sale of railway projects, hotels, and sugar and other manufacturing industries.
↑Tisdall, Simon (24 January 2021). "Ethiopia's leader must answer for the high cost of hidden war in Tigray". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 17 September 2021. Retrieved 17 September 2021. Seyoum Mesfin, Ethiopia's long-serving former foreign minister, was one of the foremost African diplomats of his generation. He was gunned down this month in Tigray by the armed forces of a lesser man – Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia's prime minister and Nobel peace prize winner. Some suggest it was the Eritrean military, Abiy's allies, who killed Seyoum, although their presence in Tigray is officially denied. The circumstances of his death remain murky. . . . . As with much of the unreported, unchallenged murder and mayhem currently occurring in northern Ethiopia, murky is what Abiy prefers. When he ordered the army's assault on the breakaway Tigray region in November, he blocked the internet, shut out aid agencies and banned journalists. It's a conflict he claims to have won – but the emerging reality is very different. It's a war fought in the shadows, with the outside world kept in the dark.
↑Rosemarie Rung (November 2020). "Demand the Nobel Committee Revoke Peace Prize to Abiy Ahmed". Change.org.
↑"Ethiopia: Communications Shutdown Takes Heavy Toll". Human Rights Watch. 9 March 2020. Archived from the original on 17 December 2020. Retrieved 11 December 2020. ...Under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's administration, communication blackouts without government justifications has become routine during social and political unrest, Human Rights Watch said.
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Nobel Peace Prize (2019)
Ethiopia 
Lieutenant Colonel 
