ETHIOPIAN Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was sworn in for a second five-year term today to run a country in the grip of a nearly year-long war.

Mr Abiy’s Prosperity Party was declared the winner of parliamentary elections earlier this year in a vote criticised and at times boycotted by opposition parties but described by some outside electoral observers as better run than those in the past.

The prime minister, awarded the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize for restoring ties with neighbouring Eritrea and for pursuing sweeping political reforms, faces major challenges as watchdogs warn that repressive government practices are on the return, deadly ethnic violence continues and the war in the northern Tigray region spreads into other parts of the country.