Ismaïl Omar Guellé is a Djiboutian politician who has served as the President of Djibouti since 1999,making him one of the longest-serving rulers in Africa. He is often referred to by his initials,IOG.
Hailemariam Desalegn Boshe is an Ethiopian politician who served as prime minister of Ethiopia from 2012 to 2018. He also previously served as deputy prime minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs under Prime Minister Meles Zenawi from 2010 to 2012. After Meles' death in August 2012,Hailemariam succeeded him as prime minister,initially in an acting capacity. He was then elected as the chair of the EPRDF,the ruling party,on 15 September 2012. Hailemariam also served as the chairperson of the African Union from 2013 to 2014.
Debretsion Gebremichael is an Ethiopian politician serving as the chairman of Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF). He was previously the president of the Tigray Region. His position as titular head of the Tigray Region was disputed by the federal government of Ethiopia who in November 2020 appointed Mulu Nega as the chief executive of the Transitional Government of Tigray,succeeded by Abraham Belay. From July 2021 to March 2023,Debretsion again led the Tigray Region,while Abraham Belay left the transitional government to become Ethiopia's minister of Defence.
Abdi Mohamoud Omar also known as Abdi Ilay is an Ethiopian politician who was serving as president of the Somali Region in Ethiopia from 2010 to 2018 and was a member of the ruling regional party Ethiopian Somali People Democratic Party (ESPDP),as well as a number five of the Meles Zenawi Foundation. However,he was removed from his positions and arrested a few months after Abiy Ahmed assumed office.
Mika Tapani Lintilä is a Finnish politician who served as Minister of Economic Affairs from 2019 to 2023. A member of the Centre Party,he has been a Member of Parliament (MP) since 1999. Lintilähas formerly served as Minister of Economic Affairs in the SipiläCabinet from 2016 to 2019 and as Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister of Finland in the Rinne Cabinet in 2019.
Abiy Ahmed Ali is an Ethiopian politician who is the current Prime Minister of Ethiopia since 2018 and the leader of the Prosperity Party since 2019. 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". Abiy served as the third chairman of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) that governed Ethiopia for 28 years and the first person of Oromo descent to hold that position. Abiy is a member of the Ethiopian parliament,and was a member of the Oromo Democratic Party (ODP),one of the then four coalition parties of the EPRDF,until its rule ceased in 2019 and he formed his own party,the Prosperity Party.
The following lists events in the year 2018 in Ethiopia.
The 2018 Eritrea–Ethiopia summit was a bilateral summit that took place on 8–9 July 2018 in Asmara,Eritrea,between Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and officials from the two countries.
The 2021 Ethiopian general election to elect members of the House of Peoples' Representatives was held on 21 June 2021 and 30 September 2021. Regional elections were also held on those dates.
Beautifying Sheger is a project sponsored by the Ethiopian government that aims to clean rivers and create public works in the capital city,Addis Ababa. It was launched on 27 February 2019 under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed,and aims to run for three years.
The Information Network Security Administration or INSA is the national signals intelligence and cybersecurity agency of Ethiopia,founded when the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) was the ruling party of Ethiopia.
The Prosperity Party is a ruling political party in Ethiopia that was established on 1 December 2019 as a successor to the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front by incumbent Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
The Council of Ministers of Abiy Ahmed is the cabinet of the government of Ethiopia during the premiership of Abiy Ahmed since early 2018.
The ongoing Ethiopian civil conflict began with the 2018 dissolution of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (ERPDF),an ethnic federalist,dominant party political coalition. After the 20-year border conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea,a decade of internal tensions,two years of protests,and a state of emergency,Hailemariam Desalegn resigned on 15 February 2018 as prime minister and EPRDF chairman,and there were hopes of peace under his successor Abiy Ahmed. However,war broke out in the Tigray Region,with resurgent regional and ethnic factional attacks throughout Ethiopia. The civil wars caused substantial human rights violations,war crimes,and extrajudicial killings.
Abiy Ahmed is currently the third serving Prime Minister of Ethiopia. In 2018,he became the first ever Oromo descent to assume the role of prime minister in the history of Ethiopia. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in his second year as a prime minister of Ethiopia in 2019 becoming the eighth African laureates to win the award for peace.
The 1995 Ethiopian Federal Constitution formalizes an ethnic federalism law aimed at undermining long-standing ethnic imperial rule,reducing ethnic tensions,promoting regional autonomy,and upholding unqualified rights to self-determination and secession in a state with more than 80 different ethnic groups. But the constitution is divisive,both among Ethiopian nationalists who believe it undermines centralized authority and fuels interethnic conflict,and among ethnic federalists who fear that the development of its vague components could lead to authoritarian centralization or even the maintenance of minority ethnic hegemony. Parliamentary elections since 1995 have taken place every five years since enactment. All but one of these have resulted in government by members of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) political coalition,under three prime ministers. The EPRDF was under the effective control of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF),which represents a small ethnic minority. In 2019 the EPRDF,under Abiy,was dissolved and he inaugurated the pan-ethnic Prosperity Party which won the 2021 Ethiopian Election,returning him as prime minister. But both political entities were different kinds of responses to the ongoing tension between constitutional ethnic federalism and the Ethiopian state's authority. Over the same period,and all administrations,a range of major conflicts with ethnic roots have occurred or continued,and the press and availability of information have been controlled. There has also been dramatic economic growth and liberalization,which has itself been attributed to,and used to justify,authoritarian state policy.
Democratic backsliding in Ethiopia is ongoing,most notably under the administration of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. Since assumption of power in April 2018,Ahmed has played crucial role of reforms in the Ethiopian politics and reversal of policies implemented by the former ruling party,the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). Abiy immediately gained public approval and international recognition owing to liberalized policymaking including in media outlets,gender equality,internet freedom and privatization of economy. Furtherly,he was also warmly gained accolades for ending 20-years conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea,from which he awarded the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize,being the first Ethiopian to earn the title. In 2019,Ethiopia received a score of 19 out of 100 in the Freedom in the World metric,a significant improvement from previous years,although it is still characterized as "Not Free". In December 2019,he formed the Prosperity Party by dissolution of EPRDF and merged all its ethnic based regional parties while the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) refused to obey,resulting intense face-off with the federal government. He promised to hold free and fair upcoming election;although due to COVID-19 pandemic deterioration and other security and logistics issues,the election was postponed indefinitely in mid-2020. Opponents called this action as backdrop to "reconsolidate dictatorship" and "constitutional crisis". On 9 September 2020,the Tigray Regional election were held as the federal government deemed illegal election. According to the electoral commission,the TPLF won 98.2% of 152 seats were contested. The federal government and the Tigray authority relations aggravated by late 2020,culminating the Tigray War.
The Ethiopia Museum of Art and Science is a 15,000 m2 (160,000 sq ft) lying science museum in Addis Ababa,Ethiopia. It was inaugurated by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed along with other high-ranking officials on 4 October 2022. Part of Chinese aided Addis Ababa Riverside Development Project Phase II,the museum contains exhibition hall dedicated to scientific and developmental research. The museum lies on 6.78 hectares with 9-metre (30 ft) circular shape dubbed "ring of wisdom" to denote "human ability and skillfulness to create objects". In addition,the second room is dedicated to a three-dimensional theatre movie called Dome Theatre. The museum also contains several building complexes and interactive display screens,cybersecurity,finance,geographical information system (GIS),service industries,data analysis,manufacturing,and robotics.
Wenchi Project is a national project launched by the Ethiopian government "Dine for Ethiopia" initiatives under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on 20 August 2020. Alongside Gorgora and Koysha Projects,Wenchi Project aimed to promote sustainable ecosystem and tourism in Wenchi town in Oromia Region. In March 2021,Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched Wenchi tourist attraction development project,which incorporates Wonchi-Dedi Project between Wenchi and Dendi woredas.
Early reforms of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed were largely the setback of the former EPRDF regime policies. Since he toke office in April 2018,Abiy made secure for the release of thousands political prisoners,dissents and journalists domestically and aboard. Many exiled opponents of the former regime returned to the country and parties like Ginbot 7,the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) has been delisted from terrorist database.
