{"id":14019,"date":"2022-04-17T19:06:01","date_gmt":"2022-04-17T19:06:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/?p=14019"},"modified":"2022-04-17T19:06:05","modified_gmt":"2022-04-17T19:06:05","slug":"the-nobel-peace-prize-that-paved-the-way-for-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/?p=14019","title":{"rendered":"The Nobel Peace Prize That Paved the Way for War"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is the story behind how Ethiopia\u2019s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, won a Nobel Prize for making peace with his country\u2019s longtime enemy \u2014 and then used the alliance to plan a war.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source: The New York Times<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dec. 15, 2021<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secret meetings with a dictator. Clandestine troop movements. Months of quiet preparation for a war that was supposed to be swift and bloodless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New evidence shows that Ethiopia\u2019s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, had been planning a military campaign in the northern Tigray region for months before war erupted one year ago, setting off a cascade of destruction and ethnic violence that has engulfed Ethiopia, Africa\u2019s second most populous country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Abiy, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate<\/a> seen recently in fatigues commanding troops on the battlefront<\/a>, insists that war was foisted upon him \u2014 that ethnic Tigrayan fighters fired the first shots in November 2020 when they attacked a federal military base in Tigray, slaughtering soldiers in their beds. That account has become an article of faith for Mr. Abiy and his supporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, it was a war of choice for Mr. Abiy \u2014 one with wheels set in motion even before the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 that turned him, for a time, into a global icon of nonviolence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Nobel win stemmed largely from the unlikely peace deal Mr. Abiy struck with Isaias Afwerki, the authoritarian leader of Eritrea, within months of coming to power in 2018. That pact ended two decades of hostility and war between the neighboring rivals, and inspired lofty hopes for a transformed region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, the Nobel emboldened Mr. Abiy and Mr. Isaias to secretly plot a course for war against their mutual foes in Tigray, according to current and former Ethiopian officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid reprisals or protect family members inside Ethiopia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the months before fighting erupted in November 2020, Mr. Abiy moved troops toward Tigray and sent military cargo planes into Eritrea. Behind closed doors, his advisers and military generals debated the merits of a conflict. Those who disagreed were fired, interrogated at gunpoint or forced to leave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still dazzled by Mr. Abiy\u2019s Nobel, the West ignored those warning signs, the officials said. But ultimately it helped to pave the way to war. \u201cFrom that day, Abiy felt he was one of the most influential personalities in the world,\u201d Gebremeskel Kassa, a former senior Abiy administration official now in exile in Europe, said in an interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe felt he had a lot of international support, and that if he went to war in Tigray, nothing would happen. And he was right,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A poster in Asmara, Eritrea, in 2018 celebrating the peace agreement between Mr. Abiy of Ethiopia and President Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea after two decades of hostilities between their countries.Credit…Malin Fezehai\/The New York Times
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Mr. Abiy\u2019s spokeswoman, the information minister of Eritrea and the Norwegian Nobel Committee did not respond to questions for this article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The quick and easy military victory that Mr. Abiy promised has not come to pass. The Tigrayans routed the Ethiopian troops<\/a> and their Eritrean allies over the summer and last month came within 160 miles of the capital, Addis Ababa <\/a>\u2014 prompting Mr. Abiy to declare a state of emergency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently, the pendulum has swung back, with government forces retaking two strategic towns that had been captured by the Tigrayans<\/a> \u2014 the latest twist in a conflict that has already cost tens of thousands of lives and pushed hundreds of thousands into famine-like conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analysts say that Mr. Abiy\u2019s journey from peacemaker to battlefield commander is a cautionary tale of how the West, desperate to find a new hero in Africa, got this leader spectacularly wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe West needs to make up for its mistakes in Ethiopia,\u201d said Alex Rondos, formerly the European Union\u2019s top diplomat in the Horn of Africa. \u201cIt misjudged Abiy. It empowered Isaias. Now the issue is whether a country of 110 million people can be prevented from unraveling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n