Awol Kasim Allo is an Ethiopian academic, author and lecturer who started teaching law at University of Keele in 2016.
[1][2] Awol was supportive of Abiy Ahmed, who became prime minister of Ethiopia in 2018, nominating him successfully for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019.
Awol stated in international media outlets like Al Jazeera, CNN and the BBC criticising what he saw as Abiy's growing authoritarianism, the repression of journalists and political dissidents in Ethiopia.
He summarised the experience of other countries that had had truth commissions, stating that "the tension between accountability/justice and peace are one of the most well-known and inevitable of contradictions faced by almost all transitional societies.
He stated that "No mature and decent leadership can resort to violence under any condition" and warned that "engag[ing] in sabotaging the transition for short term political gains" would cause all groups to lose.
In November 2020 he saw the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF, the former ruling party until 2018) as "an outspoken and powerful defender" of a federal structure in Ethiopia.
Awol interpreted the ENDF actions as "an all-out war on a regional government as a means to settle an ideological and political difference".
He said "after silencing dissent and opposition elsewhere in the country, Abiy and his camp are turning to Tigray, the last frontier in the battle over the character of the Ethiopian state".
[2] Abiy Ahmed's government issued arrest warrants for Awol in December 2020, along with seven other Ethiopian activists, writers and academics, for publicly criticizing Mr Abiy's decision to send the Ethiopia powerful federal army into the country's Tigray region to oust the regional government there on 4 November 2020.
[2] Abiy's government also deported the British citizen International Crisis Group’s Ethiopia Senior Analyst William Davison.
No formal reason was immediately given, but his expulsion doubtless relates to the serious Tigray conflict and increasing sensitivity to non-official points of view.