Ethiopia PM Abiy wins Nobel Peace Prize for mending ties with Eritrea

– Push in the right direction –

Recognising that some would consider the prize premature, the Nobel Committee said that while much remained to be done, the award should serve as encouragement, and pointed to the criteria set by prize creator Alfred Nobel — namely that the award should go to one “who has made the most significant contribution to peace within the past year”.

“We are confident that by far this is Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, and we are also hopeful that the peace prize could perhaps be a push on the peace initiatives in the right direction,” Berit Reiss-Andersen, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, told AFP.

The committee had to choose from more than 300 nominations this year.

Online betting sites had put Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg — who has already received Amnesty’s top honour and the Right Livelihood Award, sometimes dubbed the “alternative Nobel” — as the one to beat.

This year’s prize will be presented at a ceremony in Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of the 1896 death of Alfred Nobel, who was a Swedish philanthropist and scientist.

The award consists of a gold medal, a diploma, and nine million Swedish kronor (around $912,000 or 828,000 euros).

Full list of Nobel Peace Prize winners

Here is the full list of Nobel Peace Prize laureates from 1901, when the prize was first awarded.

This year’s prize went on Friday to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed for his efforts to resolve the long-running conflict with neighbouring foe Eritrea:

2019: Abiy Ahmed (Ethiopia)

2018: Denis Mukwege (DR Congo) and Nadia Murad (Iraq)

2017: International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)

2016: Juan Manuel Santos (Colombia)

2015: The National Dialogue Quartet (Tunisia)

2014: Kailash Satyarthi (India) and Malala Yousafzai (Pakistan)

2013: The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)

2012: The European Union (EU)

2011: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee (Liberia), Tawakkul Karman (Yemen)

2010: Liu Xiaobo (China)

2009: Barack Obama (US)

2008: Martti Ahtisaari (Finland)

2007: Al Gore (US) and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

2006: Muhammad Yunus (Bangladesh) and the Grameen Bank

2005: International Atomic Energy Agency and Mohamed ElBaradei (Egypt)

2004: Wangari Maathai (Kenya)

2003: Shirin Ebadi (Iran)

2002: Jimmy Carter (US)

2001: Kofi Annan (Ghana) and the United Nations

2000: Kim Dae-jung (South Korea)

1999: Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders)

1998: John Hume and David Trimble (Northern Ireland)

1997: Jody Williams (US) and the International Campaign to Ban Landmines

1996: Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo and Jose Ramos-Horta (East Timor)

1995: Joseph Rotblat (Britain) and the Pugwash movement

1994: Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres (Israel) and Yasser Arafat (PLO)

1993: Nelson Mandela and Frederik de Klerk (South Africa)

1992: Rigoberta Menchu (Guatemala)

1991: Aung San Suu Kyi (Burma)

1990: Mikhail Gorbachev (Soviet Union)

1989: Dalai Lama (Tibet)

1988: United Nations Peacekeeping Forces

1987: Oscar Arias Sanchez (Costa Rica)

1986: Elie Wiesel (US)

1985: International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War

1984: Desmond Tutu (South Africa)

1983: Lech Walesa (Poland)

1982: Alva Myrdal (Sweden) and Alfonso Garcia Robles (Mexico)

1981: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

1980: Adolfo Perez Esquivel (Argentina)

1979: Mother Teresa (Albania)

1978: Anwar Sadat (Egypt) and Menachem Begin (Israel)

1977: Amnesty International

1976: Betty Williams (Britain) and Mairead Corrigan (Northern Ireland)

1975: Andrei Sakharov (Soviet Union)

1974: Sean MacBride (Ireland) and Eisaku Sato (Japan)

1973: Henry Kissinger (US) and Le Duc Tho (Vietnam, declined)

1972: prize not handed out

1971: Willy Brandt (Germany)

1970: Norman Borlaug (US)

1969: International Labour Organisation

1968: Rene Cassin (France)

1967: prize not handed out

1966: prize not handed out

1965: United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)

1964: Martin Luther King Jr (US)

1963: International Committee of the Red Cross and the League of Red Cross Societies

1962: Linus Carl Pauling (US)

1961: Dag Hammarskjoeld (Sweden)

1960: Albert Lutuli (South Africa)

1959: Philip Noel-Baker (Britain)

1958: Georges Pire (Belgium)

1957: Lester Pearson (Canada)

1956: prize not handed out

1955: prize not handed out

1954: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

1953: George Marshall (US)

1952: Albert Schweitzer (France)

1951: Leon Jouhaux (France)

1950: Ralph Bunche (US)

1949: Lord (John) Boyd Orr of Brechin (Britain)

1948: prize not handed out

1947: Friends Service Council (The Quakers), American Friends Service Committee (The Quakers)

1946: Emily Greene Balch (US), John Raleigh Mott (US)

1945: Cordell Hull (US)

1944: International Committee of the Red Cross

1943: prize not handed out

1942: prize not handed out

1941: prize not handed out

1940: prize not handed out

1939: prize not handed out

1938: Nansen International Office for Refugees

1937: Viscount Cecil of Chelwood (Britain)

1936: Carlos Saavedra Lamas (Argentina)

1935: Carl von Ossietzky (Germany)

1934: Arthur Henderson (Britain)

1933: Sir Norman Angell (Ralph Lane) (Britain)

1932: prize not handed out

1931: Jane Addams (US) and Nicholas Murray Butler (US)

1930: Nathan Soederblom (Sweden)

1929: Frank Billings Kellogg (US)

1928: prize not handed out

1927: Ferdinand Buisson (France) and Ludwig Quidde (Germany)

1926: Aristide Briand (France) and Gustav Stresemann (Germany)

1925: Sir Austen Chamberlain (Britain) and Charles Gates Dawes (US)

1924: prize not handed out

1923: prize not handed out

1922: Fridtjof Nansen (Norway)

1921: Karl Hjalmar Branting (Sweden) and Christian Lous Lange (Norway)

1920: Leon Victor Auguste Bourgeois (France)

1919: Thomas Woodrow Wilson (US)

1918: prize not handed out

1917: International Committee of the Red Cross

1916: prize not handed out

1915: prize not handed out

1914: prize not handed out

1913: Henri La Fontaine (Belgium)

1912: Elihu Root (US)

1911: Tobias Michael Carel Asser (The Netherlands) and Alfred Hermann Fried (Austria)

1910: Permanent International Peace Bureau

1909: Auguste Marie Francois Beernaert (Belgium) and Paul Henri Benjamin Balluet, Baron d’Estournelles de Constant de Rebecque (France)

1908: Klas Pontus Arnoldson (Sweden) and Fredrik Bajer (Denmark)

1907: Ernesto Teodoro Moneta (Italy) and Louis Renault (France)

1906: Theodore Roosevelt (US)

1905: Baroness Bertha Sophie Felicita von Suttner (Austria)

1904: Institute of International Law

1903: William Randal Cremer (Britain)

1902: Elie Ducommun (Switzerland) and Charles Albert Gobat (Switzerland)

1901: Jean Henri Dunant (Switzerland) and Frederic Passy (France)