Abiy Ahmed Awarded Nobel Peace Prize – The New York Times, The New York Times

But while the two countries have made strides toward a lasting peace, challenges still remain within Ethiopia.Ethnic rivalries have flaredin recent years and the country has millions of internally displaced refugees.

“No doubt some people will think this year prize is being awarded too early,” Berit Reiss-Andersen, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, acknowledged. “The Norwegian Nobel Committee believes it is now that Abiy Ahmed’s efforts deserve recognition and need encouragement.”

Ms. Reiss-Andersen noted as she made the announcement that Mr. Abiy had yet to be reached by phone.

“If he is watching me now, I would just convey my warmest congratulations,” she said.

Why is his work important?

The peace accord signed more than a year ago between Mr. Abiy and President Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea has only slowly translated into concrete steps to reconnect the two nations.

But it has been held up as an example of how historic change can come about in even the oldest and most intractable conflicts. Diplomatic relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea have resumed, and the two leaders and senior officials from the two nations have met frequently to discuss how to reconnect their nations.

“Peace does not arise from the actions of one party alone,” Ms. Reiss-Andersen said as she announced the award on Friday. “When Prime Minister Abiy reached out his hand, President Afwerki grasped it, and helped to formalize the peace process between the two countries.”

Importantly,telecommunications have been restored, allowing families that were split up in the war to contact each other. In the days that followed this breakthrough, some Ethiopians called Eritrean numbers randomly, and vice versa, just to speak to someone on the other side, simply because they could. Others tracked down parents, siblings and friends.

When the first commercial Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa to the Eritrean capital, Asmara, landed on July 18 last year, passengers stepping off the plane fell to their knees and kissed the ground. Two sisters separated from their father in the war, stuck on opposite sides of the border, embraced him for the first time after 20 years of growing up without him.

In an official statement, Mr. Abiy’s office called the award a “timeless testimony” to the ideals of “unity, cooperation and mutual coexistence that the prime minister has been consistently championing.”

“Today, as the world takes note and celebrates his achievements through bestowing the Nobel Peace Prize, we invite all Ethiopians and friends of Ethiopia to continue standing on the side of peace,” the statement read.

Within the country, the news was met with enthusiasm by some, including Ashenafi Sintayehu, a taxi driver in the capital, Addis Ababa.

“I am happy that he brought the prize to Ethiopia,” he said. “I was telling to my fellow friends that this is a great achievement. I believe he will use this recognition for the better. ”

Who won the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize?

Nadia Murad and Denis Mukwegejointly won the award in 2018. Ms. Ms. Murad, 26, a Yazidi woman, became the voice and face of those who survivedsexual violence at the hands of Islamic Statemilitants. Dr. Mukwege, 64, is a Congolese gynecological surgeon who has treated thousands of women in his war torn home country.

Who else has won a Nobel Prize this year?

• The prize for medicine and physiologywas awarded to William G. Kaelin Jr., Peter J. Ratcliffe and Gregg L. Semenza for their work in discovering how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability.

• The prize for physicswas awarded to James Peebles, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz for their contributions to the understanding of the evolution of the universe and the Earth’s place in the cosmos.

• The prize for chemistrywas given to three scientists – John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino – who developed lithium-ion batteries, the energy storage systems that have revolutionized portable electronics.

• The 2018 and (Nobel Prizes in Literature) were both awarded this week to Olga Tokarczuk, a Polish author, and Peter Handke, an Austrian writer. Last year’s prize was postponed after the husband of an academy member was accused, and ultimately convicted, of rape. That crisis that led to the departure of several board members and required the intervention of the King of Sweden.

Simon Marks and Megan Specia contributed reporting.