Abiy Ahmed, the prime minister of Ethiopia, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, for his work in restarting peace talks with neighboring Eritrea, ending a long stalemate between the two countries.
Why did he win?
Mr. Abiy, 43, broke through two decades of frozen conflict between his vast country, Africa’s second most populous, and Eritrea, its small and isolated neighbor. When he became prime minister of Ethiopia in 2018, he made it clear that he wished to resume the stalled peace process, doing so in close cooperation with President Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea.
The two nations share deep ethnic and cultural ties, but until July last year they had been locked into a state of neither peace nor war, a conflict that had separated families, complicated geopolitics and cost the lives of more than 80,000 people during two years of border violence.
In its official announcement, the Nobel Committee detailed a litany of accomplishments for Mr. Abiy in his first 100 days as prime minister: lifting the country’s state of emergency, granting amnesty to thousands of political prisoners, discontinuing media censorship, legalizing outlawed opposition groups, dismissing military and civilian leaders suspected of corruption, and increasing the influence of women in political and community life.
While there is still work to be done to ensure a lasting peace, the Norwegian Nobel Committee noted in their citation that, “Abiy Ahmed has initiated important reforms that give many citizens hope for a better life and a brighter future.”
Berit Reiss-Andersen, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, noted that Mr. Abiy had yet to be reached by phone.
“If he is watching me now, I would just convey my warmest congratulations,” she said.
Why is his work important?
The peace accord signed more than a year ago between Mr. Abiy and President Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea has only slowly translated into concrete steps to reconnect the two nations.
But it has been held up as an example of how historic change can come about in even the oldest and most intractable conflicts. Diplomatic relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea have resumed, and the two leaders and senior officials from the two nations have met frequently to discuss how to reconnect their nations.
“Peace does not arise from the actions of one party alone,” Ms. Reiss-Andersen said as she announced the award on Friday. “When Prime Minister Abiy reached out his hand, President Afwerki grasped it, and helped to formalize the peace process between the two countries.”
Importantly, telecommunications have been restored, allowing families that were split up in the war to contact each other. In the days that followed this breakthrough, some Ethiopians called Eritrean numbers randomly, and vice versa, just to speak to someone on the other side, simply because they could. Others tracked down parents, siblings and friends.
When the first commercial Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa to the Eritrean capital, Asmara, landed on July 18 last year, passengers stepping off the plane fell to their knees and kissed the ground. Two sisters separated from their father in the war, stuck on opposite sides of the border, embraced him for the first time after 20 years of growing up without him.
In an official statement, Mr. Abiy’s office called the award a “timeless testimony” to the ideals of “unity, cooperation and mutual coexistence that the prime minister has been consistently championing.”
“Today, as the world takes note and celebrates his achievements through bestowing the Nobel Peace Prize, we invite all Ethiopians and friends of Ethiopia to continue standing on the side of peace,” the statement read.
But while the two countries have made strides toward a lasting peace, challenges still remain within Ethiopia. Ethnic rivalries have flared in recent years and the country has millions of internally displaced refugees.
“No doubt some people will think this year’s prize is being awarded too early,” Ms. Reiss-Anderson acknowledged. “The Norwegian Nobel Committee believes it is now that Abiy Ahmed’s efforts deserve recognition and need encouragement.”
Within the country, the news was met with enthusiasm by some, including Ashenafi Sintayehu, a taxi driver in the capital, Addis Ababa.
“I am happy that he brought the prize to Ethiopia,” he said. “I was telling to my fellow friends that this is a great achievement. I believe he will use this recognition for the better.”
Who won the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize?
Nadia Murad and Denis Mukwege jointly won the award in 2018. Ms. Murad, 26, a Yazidi woman, became the voice and face of those who survived sexual violence at the hands of Islamic State militants. Dr. Mukwege, 64, is a Congolese gynecological surgeon who has treated thousands of women in his war torn home country.
Who else has won a Nobel Prize this year?
The prize for medicine and physiology was awarded to William G. Kaelin Jr., Peter J. Ratcliffe and Gregg L. Semenza for their work in discovering how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability.
The prize for physics was awarded to James Peebles, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz for their contributions to the understanding of the evolution of the universe and the Earth’s place in the cosmos.
The prize for chemistry was given to three scientists — John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino — who developed lithium-ion batteries, the energy storage systems that have revolutionized portable electronics.
The 2018 and 2019 Nobel Prizes in Literature were both awarded this week to Olga Tokarczuk, a Polish author, and Peter Handke, an Austrian writer. Last year’s prize was postponed after the husband of an academy member was accused, and ultimately convicted, of rape. That crisis that led to the departure of several board members and required the intervention of the King of Sweden.
Simon Marks and Megan Specia contributed reporting.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/11/world/europe/nobel-peace-prize.html
2019-10-11 09:04:00Z
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