Abiy Ahmed Ali (Oromo: Abiyi Ahmed Alii; Amharic: አብይ አሕመድ ዐሊ; born 15 August 1976) is an Ethiopian politician who has been the 4th prime minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia since 2 April 2018.[1][2] He won the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in ending the 20-year post-war territorial stalemate between Ethiopia and Eritrea.[3][4] Abiy was the third chairman of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) that governed Ethiopia for 28 years and the first Oromo in that position.[5][6] Abiy is an elected member of the Ethiopian parliament, and was a member of the Oromo Democratic Party (ODP), one of the then four coalition parties of the EPRDF, until its rule ceased in 2019 and he formed his own party, the Prosperity Party.[7][8]

In June 2020, Abiy, in concert with the National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE), decided to postpone scheduled parliamentary elections due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This move prompted criticism, especially from the opposition,[9][10] and raised questions about the delay's constitutional legitimacy.[11]

In November 2020, simmering ethnic and political tensions, as well as attacks on the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) Northern Command, exploded into the ongoing Tigray War between the combined forces of the ENDF and the Eritrean army against forces loyal to the TPLF—an ethnic party which dominated the erstwhile ruling EPRDF coalition during a nearly thirty-year period marked by rapid development alongside increasing interethnic tension[12]—as well as those loyal to significant allied groups such as the Oromo Liberation Army.