OSLO (Reuters) – On Thursday the Nobel Peace Prize committee appealed for the Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmad, who was awarded the prize in 2019, in order to stop the violence in Tigray’s north region.

In a rare critique of a former laureate https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nobel-prize-peace-idUSKBN1WQ12I, the Norwegian Nobel committee said Abiy bore special responsibility for bringing to an end the fighting that broke out in late 2020.

After Nobel Prize winners have been awarded the prize, the committee refrains generally from making comments about their actions. An exception has been Abiy, with the committee having previously expressed its “deep concern” https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ethiopia-conflict-nobel-idUSKBN27X0WZ about the conflict.

Since then, thousands of civilians were killed in Africa’s second-largest nation. Millions of people have been displaced and hundreds of thousands are facing starvation. U.N. accused government of de facto blocking humanitarian aid from the region. The government denied the accusation.

In the past week, air strikes killed at least 73 civilians https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/ethiopia-air-strike-tigray-region-killed-least-17-people-aid-workers-citing-2022-01-11 in Tigray, aid workers said.

Berit Reiss Anderson, Nobel committee chair and peace prize laureate said that the humanitarian situation was dire. She also stated in a statement that it is unacceptable that aid has not been delivered in sufficient amounts. Abiy Ahmad, prime minister of Pakistan and peace laureate for Afghanistan, is charged with the responsibility of ending conflicts and aiding in peace. .

The government previously denied that civilians were targeted in the conflict which lasted 14 months and pits Abiy’s federal force with regional allies, backed Eritrea against the rebellious Tigray People’s Liberation Front.

Billene Seyoum was Abiy’s spokesperson. He said that Abiy took over the task of stopping the TPLF which Parliament had declared a terrorist organization.

According to Reuters, “The Prime Minister has in fact taken on this “special responsibility”, ending the conflict waged upon the State of TPLF. She has also been involved in putting an Endeavour not only the last year’s conflict, but also the destabilising actions of the TPLF.”

Abiy won the Nobel Prize https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nobel-prize-peace-idUSKBN1WQ12I a year after taking office for resolving two decades of hostility with neighbouring Eritrea – also an archenemy of the TPLF, which dominated Ethiopia’s government until Abiy came to power.

The conflict is being blamed by both sides. The TPLF charges Abiy with centralising power at cost of regions. He denies it. Meanwhile, Abiy accuses TPLF that they want to restore power at the national level. This accusation is rejected by the TPLF.