Abiy Ahmed: an embarrassing choice for the peace prize
Mesfin Arega
By deciding to award this year’s Noble Peace Prize to the Ethiopian dictator Abiy Ahmed, the awarding committee has made one of its most if not its most embarrassing decisions in its entire history, more so than the decision not to award the prize to Mahatma Gandhi. Abiy Ahmed will no doubt turn out to be a worse choice for the prize than the now disgraced 1991 winner Aung San Suu Kyi.
Besides overseeing the largest internal displacement in recent memory (larger than even Syria’s), Abiy Ahmed is one of the main architects of the looming ethnic cleansing in Ethiopia, in comparison to which the Rwandan genocide would pale. The question is not if but when will this horrendous ethnic cleansing start in earnest.
Even though the rapprochement between Ethiopia and Eritrea began more than two years ago, not only was no peace agreement signed, but is also not in sight. On the contrary, since the initial rapprochement, the two sides seem to get more estranged by the day.
Hence, Abiy Ahmed could not have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for “peace” between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Nor could he have been awarded for starting a “peace process” between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Were this the case, the main player in the “peace process” (President Isayas Afeworki) would not have been left out. Thus, this fishy peace award is a mockery of peace, and, therefore, the awarding committee should rescind it for its own sake. In any case, the award is inconsequential for both Ethiopians and Eritreans.
Mesfin Arega
mesfin.arega@gmail.com