Progressive Peace Presidents and Premiers, 2021 Edition

Andy Harrison

Here’s 2019 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia who has just assumed extraordinary powers under a six-month state of emergency in his government’s ongoing war on Tigray.

The pit which is dug will be very deep, it will be where the enemy is buried, not where Ethiopia disintegrates, he said in a speech at an event at the military’s headquarters in Addis Ababa.

We will bury this enemy with our blood and bones and make the glory of Ethiopia high again, said Abiy, who won the Nobel prize for settling Ethiopia’s longtime conflict with Eritrea.[1]

— Ethiopian leader, marking year of war, says he will bury foes with our blood
Reuters, 3 November 2021

The Norwegian Nobel Committee now gives away about 10,000,000 Swedish kronor a year for this prize.[2], or about $1,000,000. It would probably be better if they retired the prize out of a decent sense of shame, and just donated the money through GiveDirectly.org or Doctors Without Borders / MSF instead; or maybe they could donate $999,980 a year to an organization like Doctors Without Borders / MSF that provides urgent relief in conflict zones, and set aside a $20 a year donation to the Fund for the Revival of Satire in Honor of Tom Lehrer.

Shared Article from Reuters

Ethiopian leader, marking year of war, says he will bury foes ‘w…

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed pledged on Wednesday to bury his government’s enemies “with our blood” as he marked the start of the war in the Ti…

Reuters @ reuters.com (via Jesse Walker on Twitter)


  1. [1]It turns out that Abiy’s 2019 peace deal with Eritrea’s government has provided him with some advantages. Among them, the assistance of Eritrean soldiers to invade and ravage Tigray. All sides in the conflict have committed heinous human rights abuses throughout the civil war; the Eritrean soldiers have been accused of huge responsibility for the blockade and pillaging of Tigrayan villages, and the torture and massacre of thousands of civilians. The ongoing civil war has driven about 2.5 million people across northern Ethiopia out of their homes. —RG.↩
  2. [2]This increases a bit year over year. and in theory it could depend on the market performance of the securities in the Nobel endowment. Abiy’s cash prize in 2019 was 9,000,000 SEK.↩
  Andy Harrison  

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