Abiy Ahmed has been Ethiopia's prime minister since April 2018. He paved the way for a reconciliation with Eritrea that earned him the Nobel Prize.
That Abiy Ahmed would represent a profound change for his country was clear from the moment he was sworn in as Ethiopia's prime minister. In his first speech, on Monday 2 April 2018, he immediately extended an olive branch to the nation that had been the enemy for twenty years: Eritrea. "Dialogue" and "reconciliation" were the words used by the 42-year-old new head of government of the African nation. A stance that earned him, a year and a half later, the Nobel Peace Prize, "for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and in particular for his decisive initiative to resolve the conflict." As well as for having "initiated important reforms that give many citizens hope for a better life and a brighter future", with a focus on "reconciliation, solidarity and social justice".
The Ethiopian leader's approach represented a diametrically opposite shift from the line taken by the coalition that had governed the African nation for 27 years, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, which had continuously accused Asmara of destabilisation attempts. Abiy Ahmed himself had taken part in the fratricidal war that caused tens of thousands of deaths between 1998 and 2000.
The prime minister — the first from the majority but long-marginalised Oromo ethnic group — also reached out to opposition parties, calling them "brothers" rather than enemies. And he apologised "to all those who lost their loved ones", referring to the hundreds of deaths during the crackdown on protests in 2015 and 2016.
A Protestant, the son of a Muslim father and an Eastern Orthodox Christian mother, he was only fifteen years old when the dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam was overthrown, in 1991. Born in the town of Beshasha, around 400 kilometres south-west of Addis Ababa, he showed an interest in politics from a young age. Being too young to join a political party, however, he decided to commit himself to the army. Starting out as a radio operator, his military career soon led him to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was also deployed with the United Nations Blue Helmets in Rwanda, following the genocide of the Tutsi ethnic group.
In the meantime, Abiy Ahmed continued his studies. He graduated in philosophy and went on to earn a doctorate from the Institute for Peace and Security Studies. Among his most significant roles before taking the helm of government was directing one of the country's surveillance bodies, the Ethiopian Information Network Security Agency, tasked with monitoring the online activities of the population.
One of his first decisions as prime minister was to free thousands of political prisoners, among them several prominent opposition figures. He then decided to lift the "state of emergency" that had previously been imposed. Then, in September 2018, together with Eritrean president Isaias Afwerki, he took a historic step in the peace process between the two countries by reopening the border that had been closed in 1998.
It is precisely thanks to the strategic choice to end internal and external conflicts that Abiy Ahmed aims to give fresh impetus to economic development as well. Despite drought and ethnic tensions, Ethiopia has been recording growth rates above 8 per cent for more than a decade. Thanks to peace, private investment should begin to support a system still almost entirely controlled by the state.
But the reformist prime minister will also need to watch his back. The choice of speed in driving change is beginning to alienate some key players in the national political landscape. In particular the Tigrayans, an ethnic group that makes up only 6 per cent of the population but has long held power and whose influence remains considerable. And who have already begun to voice discontent with Ahmed's approach.
