Abiy Ahmed: reform, peace and the dam
A young Oromo prime minister frees prisoners, makes peace with Eritrea and wins the Nobel Peace Prize, but the opening he leads soon gives way to ethnic conflict and war.
- The Nobel Peace Prize 2019: Abiy Ahmed Ali — Norwegian Nobel Committee, NobelPrize.org (2019)
- Ethiopia — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Report of the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia — UN Human Rights Council (2022)
- Ethiopia inaugurates Grand Renaissance Dam, Africa's largest hydropower project — AllAfrica (2025)
In April 2018, after three years of mass protest by Oromo and Amhara youth, the ruling coalition chose Abiy Ahmed, a 41-year-old former intelligence officer with an Oromo Muslim father and an Amhara Orthodox mother, as prime minister. In a few months he released thousands of political prisoners, welcomed back exiled opposition groups and armed movements, lifted media restrictions, appointed a gender-balanced cabinet and made peace with Eritrea, ending twenty years of “no war, no peace”. He won the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize. In late 2019 he merged the ruling coalition into a single Prosperity Party, which the TPLF refused to join.
- The Nobel Peace Prize 2019: Abiy Ahmed Ali — Norwegian Nobel Committee, NobelPrize.org (2019)
- Ethiopia — Encyclopaedia Britannica
The opening also released long-suppressed grievances. Ethnic violence displaced millions in 2018–19, and the assassination of the beloved Oromo singer Hachalu Hundessa in June 2020 set off deadly unrest. That November the rift with the TPLF exploded into the Tigray war, followed by insurgencies in Oromia and Amhara.
- Report of the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia — UN Human Rights Council (2022)
- Ethiopia — Encyclopaedia Britannica
Through all of this, one project kept broad support: the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile, begun in 2011 and inaugurated on 9 September 2025 as Africa’s largest hydropower plant, with a design capacity of 5,150 megawatts. Civil servants pledged salaries and diaspora Ethiopians bought bonds to help pay for it, and its long dispute with Egypt is a matter of national honour (see The Nile and the Ethiopian dam).
- Ethiopia inaugurates Grand Renaissance Dam, Africa's largest hydropower project — AllAfrica (2025)
- Ethiopia — Encyclopaedia Britannica
Whether Abiy will be remembered as a reformer, a nation-builder or a war leader depends a great deal on whom you ask.
- Ethiopia — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Report of the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia — UN Human Rights Council (2022)
Abiy opened the political system, ended the TPLF's dominance, made peace with Eritrea, finished the dam and is building a modern, united Ethiopia beyond ethnic politics; the wars were forced on him.
- The Nobel Peace Prize 2019: Abiy Ahmed Ali — Norwegian Nobel Committee, NobelPrize.org (2019)
- Ethiopia — Encyclopaedia Britannica
The early reforms were reversed; journalists and opposition figures were jailed again, the Tigray war and conflicts in Oromia and Amhara cost huge numbers of lives, and power has been concentrated in the prime minister's hands.
- Report of the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia — UN Human Rights Council (2022)
- Ethiopia — Encyclopaedia Britannica
Why it matters today
Abiy's rise in 2018 raised enormous hopes, and the wars and insurgencies that followed have divided Ethiopians bitterly about him; few subjects produce more heated disagreement at a family dinner or in the diaspora. His government's flagship projects, above all the Renaissance Dam and the remaking of Addis Ababa, are a source of pride for many and of scepticism for others.