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Abiy Ahmed: a Machiavellian and unwarranted winner of Noble Prize

By Berhane Kahsay
Tigrai Online Dec. 12, 2019

Abiy Ahmed: a Machiavellian and unwarranted winner of Noble Prize

Abiy Ahmed is not a peace maker as the Noble Peace Committee would like us to believe Abiy is a dangerous and double-faced individual who is threatening the Horn of Africa.

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It was unbelievable to witness the despot Ethiopian Prime Minister receiving a Noble Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway, for allegedly ending the border conflict with neighbouring Eritrea. This is a fallacy and very far from the facts on the ground. No peace accord has been signed between Ethiopia and Eritrea, and their armies are still facing each other along the disputed borders. In other words, militarisation of the conflict zone is the same as it was when hostilities kicked-off in May 1998.  

There is no peace in Eritrea and Ethiopia. The tiny Read Sea nation is still governed by a totalitarian regime, and the people are abandoning their country in droves because of the sever repression and endless military service.  In February 2019, ‘’Helprefugees.org’’ reported that the average wage during a national service is equivalent to 52 Euro a month, and the number of Eritreans living outside their country is approaching a million and shows no sign of coming to an end. In fact, the exodus and repression will continue as usual as the Eritrean despot has been emboldened by Washington and Riyadh despite his terrible records on human rights and respect for the rule of law. As we speak, Eritreans residing in neighbouring Sudan are being rounded up and deported to their country and it is certain that they would either be killed outright or locked up in shipping containers for an indefinite period.        

In Ethiopia, the situation is even worse and unless immediate action is taken to pacify the situation, balkanisation of the country is inexorable. Since the Noble Laurette of 2019 came to power in April 2018, over 3 million people have been internally displaced because of ethnic conflicts. Carnages are taking place in Qemant with complete latitude, and recently there have been gruesome killings of innocent people in Metekel, Gumuz by the special forces of Amhara administration and no measures have been taken by the federal government to hold the perpetrators accountable for the heinous crimes they committed. Large swathes of the country including Western Oromia, Sidama and Amhara Zones have been placed under military command on the orders of the PM. In today’s Ethiopia, maintaining law and order is becoming increasingly difficult and lately the Military’s Chief of Staff was assassinated in the metropolis in broad day light.  

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Abiy Ahmed is not a peace maker as the Noble Peace Committee would like us to believe. On the contrary, the Ethiopian Prime Minister is being accused of ‘’ fanning instability in Somalia and South Sudan’’ by the UN on the eve of the award ceremony. Many Somali politicians have accused the so-called peace maker of interfering in their domestic politics. Obviously, the PM of Ethiopia was awarded the Noble Peace Prize for 2019 because his powerful friends in Washington lobbied the committee on his behalf. And based on this assessment it is safe to conclude that the honour was not on merit but purely political.

How was it possible for Abiy to beat the world famous 16-year-old climate change crusader, Great Thunberg, without the support of the US?  Abiy in return will be expected to reciprocate by opening the market of over 100 million people, and by selling the very profitable public assets such as Ethiopian Airlines, Ethio-Telecom, sugar factories and others possibly to American multi-nationals. The US will do its best to ensure Abiy remains in power so that her economic and geo-political interests would be best served now and in the future by creating a satellite state in the Horn region. The overall strategy is to check and minimize Chinese influence and economic hegemony in Africa and beyond.            

There have been several world opinions expressing their dissatisfactions with the Noble Peace Committee’s decision to award the prize to Abiy, and to add insult to injury, the winner of the 1991 Noble Pace Prize, Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar, is being accused by the UN’s highest court of genocide against Rohingya Muslims. It is to be recalled that an estimated 700,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh after the military’s cleansing operations sanctioned by none other than the previous ‘’ darling’’ of the West who is now facing the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands.

Abiy Ahmed is a dangerous and double-faced individual who would say something you want to hear in your face and do something completely different to realise his ambitions. The adulation he received when he became PM is dissipating fast and at present he is at his most dangerous state.  Because of the backing from Washington and others, he seems to be under the impression that he is at liberty to do whatever is necessary including bullying and the use of force to change the prevailing political system and perpetuate his hold on power. His foreign supporters are only concerned in furthering their own interests and could not care less the political implications of their actions.

It is visible that Ethiopia is in an extremely volatile situation and can explode at any time leading to intractable civil strife. In pursuit of their political and economic benefits, the US and its allies play dirty politics notwithstanding the human fatalities and utter destructions it may leave behind. Look no further than Iraq where because of their involvement 600,000 people have been killed, in Syria, 570,000 and in Yemen 100,000. After causing so much deaths and annihilations, they move on to their next target without blinking an eye.