{"id":12090,"date":"2021-10-05T23:39:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-05T23:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/?p=12090"},"modified":"2021-10-06T11:41:32","modified_gmt":"2021-10-06T11:41:32","slug":"ethiopia-a-brief-assessment-of-prime-minister-abiy-ahmed-as-he-starts-his-second-term","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/?p=12090","title":{"rendered":"Ethiopia: A brief assessment of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed as he starts his second term"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Source: <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/martinplaut.com\/2021\/10\/05\/ethiopia-a-brief-assessment-of-prime-minister-abiy-ahmed-as-he-starts-his-second-term\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Martin Plaut<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">October 5, 2021<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2018 \u2013 a bright new dawn<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It seems an age ago, but it was just 2018 when Prime Minister Abiy took the helm in Addis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the time Ethiopia was among the fastest developing countries in Africa. The country had grown at over 10% a year for more than a decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the same time it had many in jail and suppressed the media, but the outlook was optimistic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Very soon Abiy Ahmed appeared to be a miracle worker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a few short months he:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Reached out to his neighbouring states \u2013 resolving many long-standing issues<\/li><li>Made peace with Eritrea<\/li><li>Released journalists<\/li><li>Unbanned political parties<\/li><li>Was hailed as the first Oromo ever to lead the state.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The prospects were bright. So bright that he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize \u2013 a huge honour!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2021 \u2013 how different<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Today Ethiopia is trapped in a bitter civil war in Tigray and Oromia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The Ethiopian army \u2013 once among the finest in Africa \u2013 has been decimated<\/li><li>Areas of the North and the West are occupied by Eritrea, apparently with PM Abiy\u2019s consent<\/li><li>Eritrean agents scour Addis Ababa and other towns for enemies and deport or attack anyone that stands in President Isaias\u2019s way<\/li><li>Tigrayans \u2013 although fighting back \u2013 are almost hermetically sealed from the outside world. Some 5.2 million people are facing starvation, yet UN convoys are not allowed to supply them<\/li><li>The Oromo are deeply alienated<\/li><li>Ethiopia\u2019s relations with Sudan are terrible, with clashes along the border<\/li><li>Ties with traditional allies in Europe and the United States have deteriorated to breaking point<\/li><li>The economy is in tatters with growth falling and debts rising.<\/li><li>Journalists have been arrested, freedoms are being curtailed.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is the legacy Abiy Ahmed has made for himself. It is hardly a positive outlook at the start of the Prime Minister\u2019s second term.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: Martin Plaut October 5, 2021 2018 \u2013 a bright new dawn It seems an age ago, but<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12091,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[32,166],"class_list":["post-12090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-english","tag-martin-plaut"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/265.jpeg",640,427,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/265-150x150.jpeg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/265.jpeg",300,200,false],"medium_large":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/265.jpeg",640,427,false],"large":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/265.jpeg",640,427,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/265.jpeg",640,427,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/265.jpeg",640,427,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/265.jpeg",640,427,false],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/265.jpeg",590,394,false],"woocommerce_thumbnail":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/265-300x300.jpeg",300,300,true],"woocommerce_single":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/265.jpeg",600,400,false],"woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/265-100x100.jpeg",100,100,true]},"author_info":{"info":["Axumawian Media"]},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/?cat=2\" rel=\"category\">Article<\/a>","tag_info":"Article","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12090"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12092,"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12090\/revisions\/12092"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}