The view from Addis Ababa: Tom Gardner
To drive through Ethiopia’s southwestern Oromia region is to journey through the heart of “Abiyland.” In Jimma, a provincial capital, the face of Abiy Ahmed is everywhere, from billboards to buses to hotel lobbies. Ethiopia’s charismatic new prime minister grew up only a short drive away. “Abiy is popular throughout the country”, says Birhanu Bekele, a local academic. “But he is especially popular with these people.”
Abiy took office in April, following months of factional battling within the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), the ethnically-based coalition which has governed uninterrupted since 1991. In succeeding Hailemariam Desalegn, who resigned in February following nearly three years of persistent anti-government protests, his appointment marked the first peaceful transfer of power between two living leaders in Ethiopian history. Abiy is also the first Ethiopian leader to identify as Oromo, the country’s largest and lately most disaffected ethnic group. It was a quiet revolution.