From Nobel Prize to fighting former comrades: Ethiopia's PM Abiy

FILE PHOTO: Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed poses for a photograph during the opening of the 33rd Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the Heads of State and the Government of the African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, February 9, 2020. REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri//File Photo

ADDIS ABABA/NAIROBI (Reuters) - Dressed in a sharp black suit in front of an illustrious audience, Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed strode onto stage at Oslo's ornate City Hall on Dec. 10, 2019 to accept the Nobel Peace Prize.

"War is the epitome of hell - I know because I have been there and back," he said, recalling time as a young soldier in a 1998-2000 border war with Eritrea where tens of thousands died in trenches and minefields on scrubland.