Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has been sworn in for a second five-year term running a country in the grip of a nearly year-long war.
Abiy’s Prosperity Party was declared the winner of parliamentary elections earlier this year in a vote criticized and at times boycotted by opposition parties but described by some outside electoral observers as better run than those in the past.
The prime minister, the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize winner for restoring ties with neighbouring Eritrea and for pursuing sweeping political reforms, now faces major challenges as war in the Tigray region spreads into other parts of the country, deadly ethnic violence continues and watchdogs warn that repressive government practices are on the return.
The 11-month war is weakening Ethiopia’s economy, once one of Africa’s fastest-growing, and threatening to isolate Abiy, once seen as a regional peacemaker. Just four African heads of state – from Nigeria, Senegal and neighbouring Somalia and Djibouti – were attending Monday’s ceremony.
Ethiopia’s government last week faced condemnation from the United Nations, United States and several European nations after it expelled seven UN officials it accused of supporting the Tigray forces who have been battling Ethiopian and allied forces.
The government is under growing pressure as people begin to starve to death in Tigray under what the UN has called a “de facto humanitarian blockade.” Last week the UN humanitarian chief told The Associated Press that the situation in Ethiopia is a “stain on our conscience.”
The U.S. has threatened further sanctions if humanitarian access to Tigray isn’t granted soon and the warring sides don’t take steps toward peace.
As Abiy faces another term, “I think it will give the government the chance to renew its commitment to reform and to enhance the human rights situation in the country,” Amnesty International researcher Fisseha Tekle told The Associated Press. “They have a parliament which is dominated by one ruling party, so if they have the commitment, they also have the opportunity to do that.”
The results of a joint investigation into the conflict by the UN human rights office and the government-created Ethiopian Human Rights Commission will be released on Nov. 1, a few days before the war’s one-year mark.
