Yearender: Ethiopia bids farewell to historic year with Nobel Peace Prize, maiden satellite

Abiy Ahmed Ali, Ethiopian Prime Minister, speaks during a press conference on regional and national issues in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, Aug. 2, 2019. (Xinhua/Michael Tewelde)

The winning of the Nobel Peace Prize by Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali and the recent launching of Ethiopia's maiden satellite into space are the highlights for the African country in 2019. The events ignited hope of further socio-economic and technological advancements in 2020.

ADDIS ABABA, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- With the year 2019 coming to a close, winning the Nobel Peace Prize by Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali and the recent launching of Ethiopia's maiden satellite into space have ignited hope of further socio-economic and technological advancements in 2020.

The East African country would warmly recognize the concluding 2019 as a historic year, mainly due to these positive developments in the country.

NOBEL PEACE PRIZE INJECTS NEW IMPUTES IN SUSTAINING PEACE IN ETHIOPIA, BEYOND

The Nobel Peace Prize, awarded by the Norwegian Nobel Committee to Ahmed "for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and in particular for his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighboring Eritrea," had come at a critical time as the rapprochement of ties among Ethiopia and fellow Horn of African countries ignited hope of new beginning to the fragile Horn of Africa region.

Upon announcing Ahmed's winning of this year's Nobel Peace Prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee in a press statement issued on Oct. 11 stressed that "the prize is also meant to recognize all the stakeholders working for peace and reconciliation in Ethiopia and in the East and Northeast African regions."

Describing the Ethiopian premier's Nobel Peace Prize winning as "a timeless testimony to the main ideals of unity, cooperation and mutual coexistence that Ahmed has been consistently championing," the Ethiopian PM's Office also stressed that the steps taken to amend the broken relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea have been "critical to regional stability and integration in the spirit of Medemer (Amharic word for synergy)."

In addition to the recognition's positive implications to the fragile Horn of Africa region as it was the first-ever Nobel Peace Prize that was ever awarded to an East African personality, many analysts also stressed that the phenomenon would inject a positive imputes in solving Ethiopia's own internal conflicts.

According to the UN migration agency, in 2018, Ethiopia recorded the third highest number of new displacements worldwide, with some 3,191,000 Internally Displaced Persons across the country. A significant portion of these displacements are conflict-induced, largely related to ethnic and border-based disputes.

On Dec. 10, Ahmed told the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony in Oslo, capital of Norway his resolve to bring sustainable peace and solidarity in Ethiopia, in particular, and across the Horn of Africa region.