{"id":4417,"date":"2021-12-21T09:10:06","date_gmt":"2021-12-21T09:10:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.munkhafadat.net\/?p=4417"},"modified":"2021-12-21T09:10:06","modified_gmt":"2021-12-21T09:10:06","slug":"abiy-ahmeds-odyssey-from-nobel-peace-laureate-to-civil-war-warrior","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.munkhafadat.net\/index.php\/2021\/12\/21\/abiy-ahmeds-odyssey-from-nobel-peace-laureate-to-civil-war-warrior\/","title":{"rendered":"Abiy Ahmed’s odyssey from Nobel Peace laureate to civil war warrior"},"content":{"rendered":"
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How the Ethiopian leader and the peace award winner suddenly found himself fighting the Tigrayan rebels as a frontline soldier.<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cWe sail within a vast sphere, ever drifting in uncertainty, driven from end to end,\u201d said the famous French philosopher Blaise Pascal nearly four hundred years ago.<\/p>\n

Pascal\u2019s centuries-old observation rings true if we examine the circumstances of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who finds himself embroiled in a war, leading his forces from the front. Compared to Abiy Ahmed of the past, who was awarded the world\u2019s most prestigious Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, Abiy Ahmed of today is a starkly different person.<\/p>\n

“Starting tomorrow, I will mobilise to the front to lead the defence forces. Those who want to be among the Ethiopian children who will be hailed by history, rise up for your country today. Let’s meet at the front,”\u00a0Ahmed tweeted yesterday.<\/a><\/p>\n

Like every other politician, Ahmed has reasons to explain his current contradiction, reaching a point of defending war from his former state of being a peacemaker. But beyond politics, Ahmed also knows how to fight as a soldier. He has served the Ethiopian army for nearly two decades between 1991 and 2010.<\/p>\n

Others might say that the Ethiopian leader\u2019s transition from being an advocate of peace to being a frontline warrior has nothing to do with his nature but is a byproduct of the constantly changing balance of power in domestic, regional and international politics. Neighbouring countries like Egypt and Sudan dislike Ahmed for his politics, especially because of his position on the issue of a massive dam project on the Nile River.<\/p>\n

But one thing is clear that Ahmed has recently become\u00a0the subject of international condemnation\u00a0<\/a>for his policy toward the Tigray region located in the country\u2019s north, which is a far cry from a man, who used to be the former lover of the global community.<\/p>\n

Tigrayan rebel forces and their allies currently continue to march toward the capital, prompting Ahmed to wear his military outfits to prepare for the approaching war.<\/p>\n

How things come to this point<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ahmed, the son of a Muslim father and a Christian mother, appeared to have the perfect formula to lead Ethiopia, a country with a mixed population of Christians and Muslims. Ahmed professes her mother\u2019s religion despite having a Muslim name.<\/p>\n

Ahmed, a formerly leading figure in the country\u2019s intelligence apparatus prior to being a politician, was keen to address the country\u2019s long conflict with neighbouring Eritrea, a country which had been part of the federated Ethiopia since WWII, winning its independence in 1993 after a bloody war with Addis Ababa.<\/p>\n

In 2018, Ahmed successfully addressed the Eritrea issue by signing\u00a0“Joint Declaration of Peace and Friendship”,<\/a>\u00a0which ended long tensions between the two countries, leading the international community to award him with the Nobel Peace Prize.<\/p>\n

The same year, Ahmed, who was seen as a reformist by many analysts and opposition groups at the time, also abolished the country\u2019s anti-terrorism law and its state of emergency, angering hardliners including leading Tigrayan groups. His government also released thousands of political prisoners.<\/p>\n

But in 2020, the political situation\u00a0had drastically changed\u00a0<\/a>after Ahmed decided to implement\u00a0his nationalisation project\u00a0<\/a>in a country led by a federative system, which relatively allows different ethnicities and regions to enjoy autonomous governance.<\/p>\n

Using his background to his advantage, Ahmed has embarked on a nationalisation project to promote unity, which attempts to prioritise the Ethiopian identity over regional sub-ethnic identities. The plan will allow the federal government to have a tighter control over autonomous regions.<\/p>\n

Ahmed\u2019s centralisation project particularly irked the country\u2019s regional elites, primarily, the leaders of Tigrayan People\u2019s Liberation Front (TPLF), which was instrumental in ousting a Marxist regime in 1991, being the dominant force in the Ethiopian political life for decades until Abiy\u2019s rise to power.<\/p>\n

\"Tigrayan
Tigrayan forces and their allies continue to march toward Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital. (AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In late 2020, the wealthier Tigray region held regional elections despite the Ahmed government\u2019s protests, which called them\u00a0illegal polls.<\/a>\u00a0Following the \u201cillegal polls\u201d, some suspicious attacks happened in the Oromia region, targeting the Amhara people, Ethiopia’s second-biggest ethnic group.<\/p>\n

Ahmed is an Oromi and some believe that his ancestry is also related to the Amhara people. The Oromia regional government\u00a0accused the TPLF,<\/a>\u00a0being the perpetrators of the deadly attacks alongside the Oromo Liberation Front (OLA), a terror group\u00a0according to Addis Ababa.<\/a>\u00a0Both groups are now allied with each other to fight Ahmed\u2019s government.<\/p>\n

In early November 2020, another significant development happened after deadly clashes in Oromia. Ahmed sent federal troops to the Tigray region in a daring military operation in response to the TPLF\u2019s attack on the federal troops in the region.<\/p>\n

While the Tigray region makes up only 5 percent of Ethiopia\u2019s more than 110 million people, the TPLF’s presence in the Ethiopian army\u00a0was quite significant in the past.<\/a>\u00a0They had experienced generals and officers at their disposal but still they appeared to be on the losing side as the war began. Abiy\u2019s federal forces were quick to seize the Tigray capital Mekelle.<\/p>\n

But when it\u2019s taken into consideration of the current march of the TPLF toward the capital, dismantling federal troops on their way, the past defeat of Tigrayan forces last year seemed to be a withdrawing tactic rather than a true military defeat.<\/p>\n

In June, the Tigray rebels, which had been launching a guerrilla warfare against federal troops since late 2020, stormed back to the regional capital, pushing federal troops out of the region and imprisoning thousands of them. Since then, allied with other opposing groups, which are sternly against Ahmed\u2019s centralisation project, defending a loosely federative system, Tigrayan forces move toward the capital.<\/p>\n

The war has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides, leading to massive migration. According to international groups, both sides are also guilty of grave human rights violations against civilians during the war.<\/p>\n

Now, Ahmed, a former lieutenant colonel in the army, says he will return to his old profession of warmaking. \u201cWe will sacrifice our blood and bone to bury this enemy and uphold Ethiopia\u2019s dignity and flag,\u201d\u00a0he said.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

But even personally leading a federal army composed of different ethnicities including Tigrayans against an allied rebel force, which allegedly aims to restore\u00a0the country\u2019s old federalism<\/a>\u00a0will definitely be a real challenge for him.<\/p>\n

Source: TRT World<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How the Ethiopian leader and the peace award winner suddenly found himself fighting the Tigrayan rebels as a frontline soldier. \u201cWe sail within a vast sphere, ever drifting in uncertainty, driven from end to end,\u201d said the famous French philosopher Blaise Pascal nearly four hundred years ago. Pascal\u2019s centuries-old observation rings true if we examine …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[63],"class_list":["post-4417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-opinion","tag-abiy-ahmeds-odyssey-from-nobel-peace-laureate-to-civil-war-warrior"],"yoast_head":"\nAbiy Ahmed's odyssey from Nobel Peace laureate to civil war warrior -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/en.munkhafadat.net\/index.php\/2021\/12\/21\/abiy-ahmeds-odyssey-from-nobel-peace-laureate-to-civil-war-warrior\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Abiy Ahmed's odyssey from Nobel Peace laureate to civil war warrior -\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How the Ethiopian leader and the peace award winner suddenly found himself fighting the Tigrayan rebels as a frontline soldier. \u201cWe sail within a vast sphere, ever drifting in uncertainty, driven from end to end,\u201d said the famous French philosopher Blaise Pascal nearly four hundred years ago. 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