ADDIS ABABA, Oct 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Ahmed Ali has been sworn in in front of Parliament as Prime Minister of Africa’s second-most populous nation, Ethiopia.
The PM who had been in office since 2018 begins a new five-year mandate after his party won majority seats in the Parliament.
“After a landslide victory in June’s Ethiopian elections which took place with prominent opposition either boycotting or jailed, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has just been officially sworn in for his 5-year term in office. He had been ruling on an interim basis since April 2018.”
Two African leaders arrived in town to grace the occasion, Nigeria’s Muhammadu Buhari and Macky Sall of Senegal arrived late Sunday in Addis Ababa.
Under Ethiopia’s ethnic federal system, the party or coalition with most seats in the federal Parliament elects the Prime Minister. Abiy is the leader of the ruling Prosperity Party.
Ethiopia has been in the news for the past 10 months for a prolonged war in the northern Tigray regional state where government forces are battling regional forces.
The attendant humanitarian crisis has become the subject of global reportage citing food shortages and what UN says is a de facto siege placed on Tigray by the central governnment. — NNN-AGENCIES
