Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2019 in recognition of his efforts to end his country's long-running border conflict with Eritrea.

The Norwegian Nobel Institute on Friday also praised the "important reforms" that Abiy, Ethiopia's leader since April 2018, has launched at home.

Chairwoman Berit Reiss-Andersen said some people may consider it too early to give him the prize, but "it is now that Abiy Ahmed's efforts need recognition and deserve encouragement."

Abiy, 43, took office after widespread protests pressured the longtime ruling coalition and hurt one of the world's fastest growing economies. Africa's youngest leader quickly announced dramatic reforms and "Abiymania" began.

In a move that caused surprise in the long-turbulent Horn of Africa region, he said Ethiopia would accept a peace agreement with Eritrea, ending one of Africa's longest-running conflicts.

Within weeks, Eritrea's longtime leader, visibly moved, visited Addis Ababa and communications and transport links were restored. For the first time in two decades people could, long-divided families made tearful reunions.

The improving relations led to the lifting of United Nations sanctions on Eritrea, one of the world's most reclusive nations. But Ethiopia's reforms appear not to have inspired any in Eritrea, which has since closed border posts with its neighbor.

At home, Abiy offered one political surprise after another. He released tens of thousands of prisoners, welcomed home once-banned opposition groups and acknowledged past abuses. People expressed themselves freely on social media, and he announced that Ethiopia would hold free and fair elections in 2020. The country has one of the world's few "gender-balanced" Cabinets and a female president, a rarity in Africa.

And for the first time Ethiopia had no journalists in prison, media groups noted last year.

The new prime minister also announced the opening-up of Ethiopia's tightly controlled economy, saying private investment would be welcome in major state-owned sectors — a process that continues slowly.

But while Abiy became a global darling, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, troubles arose at home.

A grenade was thrown at him during an appearance in the capital. A large group of soldiers confronted him in his office in what he called an attempt to derail his reforms. In a display of the brio that has won Abiy widespread admiration, the former military officer defused the situation by dropping to the floor and joining the troops in push-ups.

More troubling these days are Ethiopia's rising ethnic tensions, as people once stifled by repression now act on long-held grievances. Some 1,200 people have been killed and some 1.2 million displaced in the greatest challenge yet to Abiy's rule. Some observers warn that the unrest will grow ahead of next year's election.

Abiy had been among the favorites for this year's prize in the run-up to Friday's announcement, though winners are notoriously hard to predict. The Nobel committee doesn't reveal the names of candidates or nominations for 50 years.

The following is a list of Nobel Peace Prize laureates since the prize was first awarded in 1901.

2019 - Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali

2018 - Congolese physician Denis Mukwege and Yezidi activist Nadia Murad

2017 - International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons

2016 - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos

2015 - The Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet

2014 - Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi

2013 - Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons

2012 - European Union

2011 - Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman

2010 - Liu Xiaobo

2009 - Barack Obama

2008 - Martti Ahtisaari

2007 - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Al Gore

2006 - Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank

2005 - International Atomic Energy Agency and Mohamed ElBaradei

2004 - Wangari Maathai

2003 - Shirin Ebadi

2002 - Jimmy Carter

2001 - United Nations and Kofi Annan

2000 - Kim Dae Jung

1999 - Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)

1998 - John Hume and David Trimble

1997 - International Campaign to Ban Landmines and Jody Williams

1996 - Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo and Jose Ramos-Horta

1995 - Joseph Rotblat and Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs

1994 - Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin

1993 - Nelson Mandela and Frederik Willem de Klerk

1992 - Rigoberta Menchu

1991 - Aung San Suu Kyi

1990 - Mikhail Gorbachev

1989 - Dalai Lama

1988 - U.N. peacekeeping forces

1987 - Oscar Arias Sanchez

1986 - Elie Wiesel

1985 - International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War

1984 - Desmond Tutu

1983 - Lech Walesa

1982 - Alva Myrdal and Alfonso Garcia Robles

1981 - Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees

1980 - Adolfo Perez Esquivel

1979 - Mother Teresa

1978 - Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat and Menachem Begin

1977 - Amnesty International

1976 - Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan

1975 - Andrei Sakharov

1974 - Sean MacBride and Eisaku Sato

1973 - Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho

1972 - no prize

1971 - Willy Brandt

1970 - Norman Borlaug

1969 - International Labour Organization

1968 - Rene Cassin

1967 - no prize

1966 - no prize

1965 - U.N. Children's Fund

1964 - Martin Luther King Jr

1963 - International Committee of the Red Cross and League of Red Cross Societies

1962 - Linus Carl Pauling

1961 - Dag Hammarskjold

1960 - Albert Lutuli

1959 - Philip Noel-Baker

1958 - Georges Pire

1957 - Lester Bowles Pearson

1956 - no prize

1955 - no prize

1954 - Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees

1953 - George Catlett Marshall

1952 - Albert Schweitzer 1951 and Leon Jouhaux

1950 - Ralph Bunche

1949 - John Boyd Orr

1948 - no prize

1947 - Quakers

1946 - Emily Greene Balch and John Raleigh Mott

1945 - Cordell Hull

1944 - International Committee of the Red Cross

1943 - no prize

1942 - no prize

1941 - no prize

1940 - no prize

1939 - no prize

1938 - Nansen International Office for Refugees

1937 - Edgar Algernon Robert Gascoyne Cecil

1936 - Carlos Saavedra Lamas

1935 - Carl von Ossietzky

1934 - Arthur Henderson

1933 - Norman Angell

1932 - no prize

1931 - Jane Addams and Nicholas Murray Butler

1930 - Lars Olof Jonathan Soderblom

1929 - Frank Billings Kellogg

1928 - no prize

1927 - Ferdinand Buisson, Ludwig Quidde

1926 - Aristide Briand and Gustav Stresemann

1925 - Austen Chamberlain and Charles Gates Dawes

1924 - no prize

1923 - no prize

1922 - Fridtjof Nansen

1921 - Karl Hjalmar Branting and Christian Lous Lange

1920 - Leon Victor Auguste Bourgeois

1919 - Thomas Woodrow Wilson

1918 - no prize

1917 - International Committee of the Red Cross

1916 - no prize

1915 - no prize

1914 - no prize

1913 - Henri La Fontaine

1912 - Elihu Root

1911 - Tobias Michael Carel Asser and Alfred Hermann Fried

1910 - Permanent International Peace Bureau

1909 - Auguste Marie Francois Beernaert and Paul Henri Benjamin Balluet d'Estournelles de Constant

1908 - Klas Pontus Arnoldson and Fredrik Bajer

1907 - Ernesto Teodoro Moneta and Louis Renault

1906 - Theodore Roosevelt

1905 - Bertha Sophie Felicita von Suttner

1904 - Institute of International Law

1903 - William Randal Cremer

1902 - Elie Ducommun and Charles Albert Gobat

1901 - Jean Henry Dunant and Frederic Passy