"VAN" (International Desk) :: Earlier this year, Ethiopia looked on the brink of widespread unrest as protests broke out against the government and abuses by security forces. But after just four months in office, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is steering the ship in a new direction.
The new prime minister made an unprecedented three-day visit to Ethiopian diaspora in the United States starting on July 27. Although he met with Vice President Mike Pence, his primary aim during the visit was to sell his reform projects to Ethiopians. The US is home to the biggest population of Ethiopians outside of Ethiopia -- over 300,000 live in the Washington metropolitan area alone.
In a speech in Washington, he called for members of the diaspora to support his reforms, invest in the country, and return home.
While in the US, Abiy also sought to reconcile the 27-year schism in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The church split in 1991 over the naming of a new patriarch after the rebel Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPDRF) toppled the Derg military junta from power. The former patriarch went into exile in the United States, effectively splitting the church. Abiy helped accelerate the peace talks, overseeing a reunification ceremony in Washington on Friday.
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