People & Power

The Battle for Ethiopia

Can Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed help unify a country steeped in deep ethnic tensions and long-standing rivalries?

When Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, came to power in 2018, he promised a new era of democratic reforms and an end to years of autocracy.

Political prisoners were freed, opposition parties were allowed to operate, and the new prime minister even won a Nobel Prize for securing peace with neighbouring Eritrea after decades of an uneasy armistice.

But since then, long-standing ethnic divisions have made the future of this complex country more uncertain.

Earlier this year, we went to find out why.