Abiy Ahmed, the Ethiopian Prime Minister, has received the 2019 Edition Laureate of the Felix Houphouet-Boigny Peace Prize. This he got because of his initiative at bridging a peaceful agreement between Eritrea and his country. Both countries have had some bad blood between them for a long time.
The Director-General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, pronounced him the winner of the award at the Global Conference of Press World Freedom 2019. The conference started on Thursday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The 42-year-old Prime Minister was selected for the award because of his efforts in consolidating democracy and social cohesion in his country.
The Felix Houphouet-Boigny Prize was established in 1989 as a tribute to President Felix for his action for World Peace. This award honors live persons, active institutions (private/public) who have made laudable contributions to maintaining and safeguarding peace in line with the United Nations Charter and UNESCO’s Constitution.
After his election into office last year, Abiy Ahmed had promised to ensure good governance and fight against the corruption that has eaten deep into the country’s economy. He also proposed to work on ethnic conflicts that have displaced above 2 million people in the country since 2017.
In his quest to fulfill his promises he met with Isaias Afwerki, the President of Eritrea and they agreed to peace-restoring diplomatic relations that have been non-existent for almost 20 years. He has also made efforts to reconcile with a lot of rebel groups in the country. Abiy Ahmed was named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People 2019 list.