A Nation Cannot Rise While Stepping Over Its Dead: Abiy Ahmed and Ethiopia’s Crisis of Moral Leadership

Amsal Woreta

Abstract

This paper examines the political transformation of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed from a reformist leader celebrated with the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize into a ruler whose tenure has been marked by civil war, mass displacement, communal massacres, militarized governance, restricted accountability, and rhetoric that critics describe as dehumanizing. The argument is not that Abiy alone created Ethiopia’s crises; many armed actors, historical grievances, ethnic federalism, regional elites, and insurgent movements have contributed to Ethiopia’s tragedy. The central argument is narrower and more urgent: under Abiy’s leadership, the Ethiopian state has repeatedly failed in its first duty—to protect civilians—and the prime minister’s public language has too often framed political conflict through enemies, burial, cleansing, force, and existential struggle rather than through constitutional responsibility, civilian protection, reconciliation, and accountability.   

From the first day of his premiership, Abiy Ahmed promised unity, peace, and the protection of all Ethiopians. Yet over eight years, his words and actions reveal a starkly different reality: massacres left unaddressed, civilians displaced, churches burned, mothers and children killed, and ethnic communities treated as politically expendable. His rhetoric often dehumanizes entire groups, framing suffering as collateral or acceptable cost, rather than a moral obligation to protect life. Abiy’s lack of empathy is not a minor flaw—it is a central feature of his leadership, and it has transformed Ethiopia’s promise of hope into a prolonged crisis of human survival and national trust.

Introduction: The Leader Who Promised Unity

When Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018, many Ethiopians and international observers saw him as a bridge between Ethiopia’s authoritarian past and a democratic future. He released political prisoners, allowed exiled opposition groups to return, opened political space, and restored relations with Eritrea. These early reforms helped earn him the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, awarded for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, especially with Eritrea.

Yet the promise of reconciliation soon collided with a harsher reality. Ethiopia under Abiy became a country of overlapping wars: Tigray, Amhara, Oromia, Benishangul-Gumuz, Gambella, and other regions experienced cycles of violence, mass displacement, ethnic targeting, arbitrary detention, sexual violence, and civilian killings. Human Rights Watch’s 2025 assessment states that Ethiopia remains affected by internal conflict, intercommunal violence, security-force abuses, and due-process violations.

The problem is not merely that Ethiopia has conflicts. Many countries inherit deep conflicts. The deeper problem is that Abiy’s government has repeatedly treated political violence as a matter of domination rather than protection. A state may fight insurgencies, but it must still protect civilians, investigate abuses, and speak in a language that preserves the humanity of all communities. Under Abiy, that standard has often failed.

I. The Collapse of the Reform Image

Abiy’s early reform period was real, but fragile. Amnesty International initially recognized his government’s reform efforts after decades of repression. Human Rights Watch also described the Nobel Prize as “bittersweet,” noting both real reforms and serious unresolved human-rights concerns.

The turning point was the Tigray war, which began in November 2020. Abiy’s government framed the conflict as a law-enforcement operation against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. But the war quickly became one of Africa’s deadliest recent conflicts, involving Ethiopian federal forces, Eritrean forces, Tigrayan forces, Amhara regional forces, and militia actors. The UN-mandated International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia later found grave and systematic violations in Tigray, Amhara, Afar, and Oromia, including mass killings, rape, starvation, forced displacement, and arbitrary detention.

The tragedy is that a Nobel Peace Prize leader did not become a custodian of national reconciliation. Instead, Ethiopia moved from one conflict to another. Reuters reported in 2023 that the Amhara conflict became Ethiopia’s most serious security crisis since the end of the Tigray war.

II. Rhetoric of Enemy-Making

A leader’s language matters in a fragile multiethnic country. In Ethiopia, words are not harmless. Words can humanize, de-escalate, and protect, or they can mark whole communities as enemies.

Several of Abiy’s public comments have raised grave concern. In November 2021, Reuters reported that Abiy pledged to bury his government’s enemies “with our blood” during the Tigray war. Facebook removed one of his posts that urged citizens to rise and “bury” rival Tigrayan forces.

In July 2021, a statement attributed to Abiy and translated by Tghat described the enemy as “the cancer of Ethiopia.” Reuters also reported that Abiy’s descriptions of past Tigrayan-led governments as “daytime hyenas” had angered the TPLF.

Such language is dangerous because it shifts the moral imagination of the public. Once opponents are framed as cancer, hyenas, lice, weeds, traitors, or enemies to be buried, the line between combatants and civilians becomes easier to erase.

III. Civilian Protection as the Central Test

The moral test of any state is not how it treats loyal supporters but how it protects vulnerable civilians, including those living in regions accused of supporting opposition forces. By that measure, Abiy’s record is deeply troubling.

In Tigray, the UN commission documented grave violations, including mass killings, rape, starvation, forced displacement, and arbitrary detention. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International reported crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing in Western Tigray, noting the involvement of Amhara regional security forces and civilian authorities, with alleged acquiescence and possible participation of Ethiopian federal forces.

In Oromia, Amhara civilians were massacred in Tole in June 2022. Amnesty International called for an impartial investigation into the killing of more than four hundred ethnic Amhara residents. Human Rights Watch reported that several hundred Amhara civilians were killed in western Oromia while Ethiopian security forces did little to protect them.

IV. The Orthodox and Amhara Question

The suffering of Orthodox Christians and Amhara civilians must be named clearly, not hidden under vague language. Ethiopia’s recent violence has included attacks on communities identified by ethnicity, religion, or political association. In western Oromia, Amhara civilians were targeted in repeated massacres. Amnesty and Human Rights Watch documented the Tole massacre and the state’s failure to provide adequate protection.

The Amhara region later became a war zone between federal forces and Fano. The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission expressed concern in 2023 about attacks targeting civilians, extrajudicial killings, and arbitrary detention in the Amhara conflict. Reuters reported in 2025 that the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission found both federal forces and Amhara militiamen responsible for civilian deaths in the long-running Amhara conflict.

This distinction is important: a scholarly paper should not deny abuses by non-state armed groups, including Fano factions, OLA forces, TPLF-affiliated forces, or others. But the state carries a higher legal and moral obligation. Abiy is not merely one actor among many; he is the head of government. He controls federal institutions, military command, national messaging, accountability mechanisms, and the political tone of the state.

Abiy Ahmed’s crisis is not only a crisis of leadership; it is a crisis of humanity. Any leader can make political mistakes, but only a morally broken leader can speak without visible grief while his citizens are massacred, displaced, raped, starved, and buried. His lack of empathy has become part of Ethiopia’s national tragedy. He came to power promising unity and healing, yet his words and actions have too often treated human life as disposable when the victims belong to communities outside his political comfort. A leader who cannot mourn all citizens equally has no moral right to rule them.

V. The Politics of Impunity

A repeated criticism of Abiy’s government is that accountability has been weak, delayed, politicized, or used selectively. Amnesty International stated in 2024 that human-rights violations continued with no meaningful progress toward individual accountability in Amhara, while atrocities in Tigray and abuses in Oromia remained largely unaddressed. Human Rights Watch’s joint submission to the UN Universal Periodic Review said Ethiopia’s human-rights situation had deteriorated sharply since 2019 and that accountability efforts lacked transparency and independent oversight.

The UN commission warned in October 2023 that mass killings and human-rights abuses in Ethiopia over several years of conflict were “staggering” and that the international community needed to protect civilians and hold perpetrators accountable.

VI. Development Without Protection

Abiy’s government has promoted large infrastructure and beautification projects, including corridor development and urban renewal. Amnesty International’s Ethiopia report notes that thousands faced sudden forced evictions under the Corridor Development Project, which authorities described as an urban development project and which Abiy was credited with creating and closely overseeing.

Development cannot substitute for human security. Roads, parks, palaces, resorts, airports, and corridors cannot morally compensate for massacres, displacement, arbitrary detention, or starvation. A government that beautifies cities while citizens are killed on roads, displaced from homes, or trapped between armed forces creates a politics of spectacle: the image of progress over the reality of human suffering.

VII. The 2026 Election and the Problem of Legitimacy

As of June 2026, Ethiopia has again held elections amid insecurity. Reuters reported that the The June 2026 election was expected to give Abiy’s Prosperity Party a landslide victory, but voting was disrupted in parts of Amhara and Oromia, Tigray did not vote, opposition forces were weak, and critics accused the government of suppressing political space. AP similarly reported that voting was disrupted by security problems and that Tigray again did not participate.

Elections held amid war, exclusion, fear, and weakened opposition may produce power, but they do not necessarily produce legitimacy. In a country as wounded as Ethiopia, legitimacy must come from protection, truth, justice, inclusive dialogue, constitutional reform, and the restoration of trust among communities.

VIII. Who Is Abiy Ahmed? A Political Assessment

Abiy Ahmed is not easily reduced to one label. He began as a reformer. He became a Nobel laureate. He speaks the language of unity, prosperity, and national pride. But the record of his rule shows another pattern: centralization of power, militarized response to dissent, rhetorical enemy-making, selective accountability, and repeated failure to protect civilians.

A fair assessment is this: Abiy is a leader whose promise of unity has been overtaken by a governing style that deepens fear. He is not simply a failed reformer; he is a ruler whose words and policies have contributed to a political culture in which human suffering is minimized when it belongs to the “wrong” community.

Conclusion: A State Without Empathy Becomes a Danger to Its People

The central charge against Abiy Ahmed is not only that Ethiopia suffered under his rule. Ethiopia had deep wounds before him. The charge is that he came to power promising healing, but presided over a period in which massacres, war, displacement, rape, starvation, forced evictions, and arbitrary detention became recurring features of national life.

A leader who lacks empathy toward the people he is supposed to protect becomes dangerous not because he is emotional, but because he becomes morally numb. When civilian death becomes politically acceptable, when communities are treated as expendable, when accountability is delayed, and when state violence is wrapped in the language of national salvation, the country itself is placed at risk.

Ethiopia’s future requires more than replacing one leader. It requires a new political covenant: civilian protection above regime survival, citizenship above ethnic targeting, truth above propaganda, and justice above selective memory. But any honest reckoning must begin by naming the failure at the top. Abiy Ahmed promised unity. His record shows a country more wounded, divided, militarized, and afraid than when he began.

A nation cannot be built by stepping over its dead.

Editor’s Note: Views in the article do not necessarily reflect the views of borkena.com  

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