Updated:
Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (45) will lead the conflict-torn country for another five years.
Addis Ababa – MPs re-elected the head of government, who has been in office since 2018, with a large majority on Monday. The 2019 Nobel Peace Prize laureate was then sworn in in parliament in the capital Addis Ababa. The election of the prime minister, which is decided by a simple majority, followed a parliamentary election boycotted by the main opposition parties in July, which Abiy’s party won with an overwhelming victory. The vote was postponed twice due to a month-long and ongoing conflict.
The political situation in the 115 million-strong country has been extremely tense since the government launched a military offensive against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in November 2020. Until then, it was in power in the Tigray region in northern Ethiopia. The background to the conflict in the north-east African country were years of tensions between the TPLF and the central government. The TPLF dominated Ethiopia for a good 25 years until Prime Minister Abiy came to power in 2018 and ousted it. Many people in Tigray feel that they are not represented by the central government and are demanding more autonomy. Other actors are now involved, including troops and militias from neighboring Eritrea. (dpa)