11-08-20 – TheGuardian wrote
PM who won Nobel peace prize takes Ethiopia to brink of civil war
Abiy Ahmed made his name as a reformer – but was there always an authoritarian waiting to come out? The contrast between “besuited Abiy” and “bomber jacket Abiy” was sharp, as was that between Abiy’s early days in power back in 2018 – when observers compared the young reforming leader to Nelson Mandela, Justin Trudeau, Barack Obama and Mikhail Gorbachev – and the darker more troubled time now. For some, the real Abiy is only now being seen. “You don’t come up through the ranks of military intelligence and the ruling coalition in Ethiopia and be Mr Nice Guy. It just doesn’t happen,” said Martin Plaut, a regional expert at London University.