Forces from Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region have taken control of the town of Lalibela, home of 12th- and 13th-century monolithic churches designated as a UNESCO world heritage site, Reuters reported Thursday.
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A holy site for Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, Lalibela in north-central Ethiopia is a major tourist destination. Tens of thousands of visitors usually visit Lalibela on the Orthodox Easter weekend to be near the churches hewed out of solid rock below ground level.
But tourism dropped after a war broke out in November between the federal army and forces from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops to Tigray after what he said was an attack by Tigrayans on a national military base.
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In recent weeks, there has been an expansion of the war in Tigray, with fighting spreading into the neighboring regions of Amhara and Afar. The widening had displaced 200,000 people in the Ahmara region, as well as 54,000 in Afar, United Nations aid chief Martin Griffiths said Tuesday.
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Members on both sides — the Tigray rebel forces and the Ethiopian army — have been accused of committing human rights abuses.
What’s behind the renewed conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region?
Lalibela’s deputy mayor, Mandefro Tadesse, told the BBC that the town was under the control of the Tigray rebels. While there had not been any shooting, there was a large exodus of residents, he said.
“We’ve seen the reports that Tigrayan forces have taken Lalibela. We call on the TPLF to protect this cultural heritage,” U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters, according to Reuters. He called on the parties to agree to end the violence and allow humanitarian access into the conflict region.
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Previously, Reuters had reported the development based on eyewitness accounts.
The language of the people in Lalibela is Amharic — but Seyfu, a Lalibela resident, told Reuters he saw hundreds of men walking through Lalibela speaking Tigrinya, the language of ethnic Tigrayans. The crowd of men was wearing “different uniforms” from the national military, the source told Reuters.
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Residents and local officials fled the area, eyewitnesses told Reuters. So did forces of the Amhara region allied to Ethiopia’s central government, Seyfu said.
“We asked them to stay, or at least give us their Kalashnikovs, but they refused and fled, taking five ambulances, several trucks and cars. They shot dead a friend of mine while they fled; he was begging them to stay to protect civilians,” he said.
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Another man, Dawit, told Reuters by phone that he left Lalibela on Thursday morning as forces arrived. “We had to walk with on foot, around 200 of us left,” he said.
Daniel, a third Lalibela resident, told Reuters that he fled to the mountains outside the holy city. Only women and children were left in the town, he said.
Around 30 corpses recently floated down a river between Tigray and Sudan, according to two Ethiopian refugees and four Sudanese witnesses who spoke to Reuters on Monday. They told Reuters that they retrieved some of the bodies, some of which had gunshot wounds, and others had their hands tied, according to Reuters.