Abiy Ahmed, Vladimir Lenin and the Quest for Peace

in a hurry. This year’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate surprised his Norwegian hosts when he declined to hold two press conferences and skipped town shortly after delivering his Dec. 10 Nobel lecture. Rising ethnic tensions beckoned the Ethiopian prime minister home.

Mr. Abiy won the Nobel for his “decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighboring Eritrea,” but his most important work lies ahead of him. Ethnic conflict is the principal threat to the stability of Ethiopia—Africa’s second-most-populous…