Nobel Peace Prize goes to Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed
Eritrea’s President, Isaias Afwerki, talks to Ethiopia’s Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed during the Inauguration ceremony marking the reopening of the Eritrean Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on July 16, 2018.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed receives the Nobel Peace Prize this year. He is honored for his commitment to peace and international cooperation, and above all for his initiative to resolve the border dispute with the Ethiopian neighbor Eritrea . This was announced by the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo on Friday. In July 2018, Ethiopia and Eritrea signed a peace treaty that officially ended the 20-year dispute between the countries.
Thus, the Nobel Prize winners in the categories medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace are fixed. On Monday, the announcement of the Nobel Prize for Economics follows, which is the only one not based on the will of the Swedish prize founder and dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel.
The award, which is awarded by the Norwegian Nobel jury, is considered the most prestigious political award in the world and is endowed with nine million Swedish kroner (about 830,000 euros). Last year, Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege and Iraqi human rights activist Nadia Murad received her as a weapon of war for her fight against sexual violence.
The jury had a choice of 301 nominees this year, including 223 personalities and 78 organizations. In the run-up it had been speculated that the price could go to the Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg this year.
Thunberg is the model of the global climate protests that have been held for months under the motto Fridays for Future. Other favorites included Brazilian chief Raoni Metuktire and New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern, as well as organizations such as Reporters Without Borders.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has awarded the prize 99 times since 1901, with a total of 130 different winners, including 89 men, 17 women and 24 organizations. In 19 years, there was no winner, especially in times of war and crisis. This year’s award is the 100th and thus an anniversary for the jury.
The selection will be made by a jury appointed by the Norwegian Parliament
The youngest laureate to date is the Pakistani child rights activist Malala Yousafzai, who was honored in 2014 at the age of 17. Most recently, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded in 2007 for efforts against climate change. At that time, he received the activist and former US Vice President Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The Nobel Peace Prize, unlike the other Nobel Prizes, is not awarded in Stockholm, but in Oslo. There he will be presented on December 10, the anniversary of the death of the dynamite inventor and prize founder Alfred Nobel. The selection is the responsibility of a jury appointed by the Norwegian Parliament. (AP)
