Ethiopia ruling party picks leader from protest-hit region

Bloomberg

Ethiopia’s ruling coalition appointed a top official from the protest-hit Oromia region as leader, as the government tries to quell unrest that’s posed the biggest challenge to its rule in a quarter-century.
The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front chose Abiy Ahmed, 42, a retired lieutenant
general and recently appointed chairman of the Oromo People’s Democratic Organization, to succeed Hailemariam Desalegn. Abiy is now expected to be voted in by parliament as the country’s next prime minister.
Hailemariam resigned last month as premier after failing to end anti-government protests in the Oromia and Amhara regions that began in late 2015 and were spearheaded by young activists known as the Qeerroo. The government has instituted its second state of emergency in two years amid demonstrations that Human Rights Watch says have left hundreds of people dead.
Ethiopia, Africa’s fastest-growing economy over the past decade, is a key US ally in its battle against al-Qaeda in the Horn of Africa. Home to more than 100 million people, the $78.4 billion economy, according to the International Monetary Fund, has drawn investors including General Electric Co., Johannesburg-based Standard Bank Group and hundreds of Chinese companies.
EUROBONDS RALLY
Ethiopian assets rallied after the leadership announcement. Yields on the nation’s Eurobonds due in 2024 fell 22 basis points, the most since November 2016, to 6.31 percent by 1:21 p.m. in London. Through last week, the bonds had lost 3.3 percent year-to-date, which was the worst performance for sub-Saharan African dollar debt after Zambia’s.
A speaker of three Ethiopian languages and English, Abiy holds a doctorate from Addis Ababa University in traditional conflict resolution and has been on the OPDO’s central committee and represented his Oromia hometown of Agaro in parliament since 2010. He previously served as director of the nation’s Information Network Security Agency, which says it provides technical intelligence to support the government.