What´s going on in Ethiopia?

Ethiopia´s prime minister Abiy Ahmed has out forward a lot of talked about reforms lately. He has promoted peace with neighbouring Eritrea and a lot of women has been appointed to minsters. Ethiopia has even got their first female president. So is everything going to be fine now or is it more complicated? The site www.democracyinafrica.org tries to give som in depth analysis on the recent events.

Bina Fernandez from the University of Melbourne discusses what the many apointments of women as ministers will mean for Ethiopia here 


Hamza El Guili from the University of Abdelmalak Essaadi of Tanger in Morocco reflects on the the peace deal between Ethiopia and Eritrea here.

The female power in Africa

Today it was announced that Sahle-Work Zewde has been selected by the parliament as Ethiopia´s first ever female president, a position that is only ceremonial. The political power is in the hands of prime minister Abiy Ahmed.

Sahle-Work Zewde is best known for her work in the UN. She is now one of only two female heads of government or state in entire Africa, along with Namibias prime minister Saara Kuugongelwa. The best known female president in the modern era in Africa is probably Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia who was president between 2006 and 2018. She was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 2011.

Africa has a rich history of powerful queens. In the video below you can get to know some of them.

Ethiopia introduces new peace ministry

The Ethiopian government has announced that it will create a new peace ministry in the country.
"The main problem in this this country is the lack of peace. This ministry will be working hard to ensure it prevails", prime minister Abiy Ahmed said, according to the Guardian.

One task for the minstry will be to downgrade the security and intelligence forces. Prime minister Abiy Ahmed has been known for his reforms in Ethiopia and most notably he recently made peace with the neighbor country Eritrea. Only the future can tell if Ethiopia will be a better country thanks to Abiy Ahmeds political reforms. In the video below you can see a BBC report from when Abiy Ahmed bacame prime minister.