Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali, who forged a peace deal with Eritrea last year, has won the 2019 Nobel peace prize.
A spokesperson announced: "The Norwegian Nobel committee has decided to award the Nobel peace prize for 2019 to Ethiopian prime minister Abiy Ahmed’s efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation and for his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighbouring Eritrea."
BREAKING NEWS:— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 11, 2019
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2019 to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali.#NobelPrize #NobelPeacePrize pic.twitter.com/uGRpZJHk1B
After Ahmed had taken office in April 2018, he released political prisoners and later signed a peace agreement with the Eritrean leader Isaias Afwerki in a deal that saw Ethiopia agree to the border.
He has also championed women in politics, electing females to half of the government’s 20 ministerial posts.
Other figures who were considered in the running for this year’s prize included the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and Hong Kong pro-democracy activists.
Ninety-nine Nobel peace prizes have been awarded since 1901, to individuals and 24 organisations. While the other Nobel prize laureates are announced in Stockholm, the peace prize is awarded in the Norwegian capital, Oslo.
It was won in 2018 by Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege and human rights activist Nadia Murad for their campaign to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war.
