The experts had him on the slip as candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize - now has Abiy Ahmed, 43 years old, since 2018 Prime Minister of Ethiopia, actually received the award. What's more, he was the first African Prime Minister to take him alone. Most recently, the South African politicians Nelson Mandela and Frederik W. de Klerk were awarded the 1993 prize jointly.
Abiy, who wants to act as a great reconciler in the African economic miracle, learned of the honor of the committee in Oslo, when he was just in a reconciliation talk.
"The prime minister is in a bilateral conversation with his Sudanese counterpart Abdalla Hamdok," said Billene Seyoum, personal spokeswoman for Abiys, a few minutes after the announcement to the SPIEGEL. The press office had of course delivered Ahmed's chief of staff "the good news" immediately. The talks were continued without interruption, assured Billene. Hard to believe.
Change through approach
One thing is certain: He wants to settle the dispute over the gigantic Ethiopian Nile power plant with Sudan. With a 155-meter dam, Ethiopia will soon begin to dam the waters of the Nile, which has far-reaching problems for Sudan and Egypt, whose populations depend on the river. Finding a solution becomes difficult.
Abiy is already familiar with such situations. He handed his arch rival Isayas Afewerki, since 1993 dictator of neighboring Eritrea, shortly after taking office in April 2018 a hand to reconciliation. The border conflict between the two countries, unresolved over two decades, is now considered to be over. Between Asmara, the Eritrean capital, and Addis Ababa, there are scheduled flights, border crossings should be at least temporarily open.
Although not much is left of the initial euphoria, there are still many unresolved problems between the two neighboring countries. Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that shortly after taking office, Abiy was able to arrange a meeting for Afewerki, the old Stalinist and front warrior of the Ethiopian-Eritrean war. Change through rapprochement, that's the formula that Abiy sets.
The unlikely premier
But the PM also seems to have a good instinct for capturing people. When dissatisfied soldiers marched in front of his office in October 2018 and demanded salary increases, ex-intelligence officer Abiyi first threatened the uniformed man.
Then he threw himself in front of the men in the dust and measured himself with them in the push-up contest - in front of running TV cameras. The soldiers withdrew, the threatening situation was defused.
Maheder Haileselassie / REUTERS
Young Ethiopians put their hopes in Abiy
When Abiy came to power in 2018 after bloody mass protests with many hundreds dead, he seemed like a stopgap. Although he belongs to the ethnic group of Oromo, the largest in Ethiopia. In power, however, were other long, smaller groups. After the then ruling party alliance EPRDF had left him the office of prime minister, Abiy made policy in powerplay mode:
- Political prisons opened everywhere in the country, and journalists and dissidents were released on his orders.
- He also took a serious stand against corruption, deprived an army corporation of the dam project that so angered Sudan and Egypt. Now the construction works on Africa's largest power plant, as they should.
Ethiopia is home to Africa's largest hydropower plant
Many Ethiopians celebrate it for it. However, such forced change also brings opponents to the scene. Meanwhile, Abiy even wages war in his own country, against separatists in the north of the country. And he even survived an assassination in June last year.
To award incumbent heads of government is always risky for the Nobel Committee. The fact that Barack Obama, as US President, received the prize during his term of office, seemed premature to many. So it is with Abiy, the reconciler, who uses soldiers in his own country to keep Ethiopia together with its 100 million inhabitants.