News
The World Council of Churches (WCC) offers its congratulations to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed as Nobel Peace Prize laureate 2019. Since his election as Prime Minister in April 2018, Mr Ahmed has championed an impressive programme of positive and inspiring reform initiatives, and played a decisive role in the reconciliation of the two synods and fostered the unity of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. The achievement which this award particularly recognizes is Prime Minister Ahmed’s leadership in bringing an formal end to the twenty-year long fratricidal conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea.
”A well-deserved award for a head of state who takes seriously his duty to be peacemaker,” commented WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit. “WCC has over many years taken initiatives in support of dialogue for peace in the region, together with our member churches and partners. Now we join in celebrating this recognition of Prime Minister Ahmed’s historic achievement.”
Despite all the progress that has been achieved, however, peace is never finally won, and must be continuously striven for,” observed WCC Director for International Affairs Peter Prove. “We continue to be alarmed by resurgent ethnic tensions and conflict, affecting both the society at large and the church.”
According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC), about 2.9 million new displacements associated with conflict were recorded in Ethiopia in 2018, the highest figure recorded worldwide. In the first half of 2019, another 522,000 conflict-related displacements have been recorded.
Tveit concluded: “We hope that this Nobel Peace Prize will provide fresh inspiration and momentum in the ongoing search for peace and justice in Ethiopia, and the realization of the vision that Prime Minister Ahmed as so inspirationally articulated.”
