Residents report gunfire in Ethiopian holy city, but government says all peaceful
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia/Nairobi, Kenya Reuters Fighting broke out on Wednesday between the army and a regional militia in Ethiopia’s medieval holy city of Lalibela, a World Heritage site, four residents told Reuters, but the government said the area was peaceful. Fano, a part-time militia in the northern Amhara region which has no formal command structure, […]
Clashes in Ethiopia’s Amhara region raise concern for historic churches
Nairobi, Kenya/Addis Ababa, EthiopiaReuters Fresh fighting between the Ethiopian army and a local militia in the northern Amhara region has raised concerns among residents for the safety of historic rock-hewn churches in the holy town of Lalibela. Fano militiamen over-ran Lalibela and Gondar, the second-biggest city in the Amhara region, for several days in August […]
Ethiopia’s holy town of Lalibela struggles to heal wounds of war
Lalibela, EthiopiaReuters The bedframes where sleepy pilgrims used to rest at the Cliff Edge Hotel lie twisted under the sky, blood spatters the hotel kitchen and a lone picture of a priest hangs on a crumbling wall. The 18-room hotel in the holy town of Lalibela, in the north of Ethiopia, used to welcome visitors […]
Witnesses say Tigrayan forces in Ethiopia retook Lalibela, UN Heritage site
Addis Ababa, EthiopiaReuters Rebellious Tigrayan forces have recaptured the Ethiopian town of Lalibela, witnesses told Reuters on Sunday, less than two weeks after the military and its allies took control of it as part of a broader offensive that pushed back Tigrayan forces on multiple fronts. Lalibela is a town in the Amhara region bordering […]
Ethiopian Government says it has recaptured Lalibela, UN World Heritage site
Addis Ababa Reuters Ethiopian Government forces and their regional allies have recaptured the town of Lalibela – a United Nations World Heritage Site – from Tigrayan forces, the Prime Minister’s office said on Wednesday. Forces aligned with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front had taken control of the town, in the Amhara region, in early August. […]
Great Works: The rock-hewn churches of Lalibela
In the headlines recently over fears for their future, DAVID ADAMS takes a look at Ethiopia’s famous rock-hewn churches…
Fate of rock churches of Lalibela raises concerns among US Ethiopians
RNS The fate of the ancient rock-hewn churches of northern Ethiopia has become a grave concern for Ethiopian Americans, as a civil war between the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Tigray rebels imperil the fate of many religious sites across the country. For months, Ethiopian troops have fought a rebellion by the Tigray […]
Tigrayan forces take control of Ethiopia’s Lalibela, a UN World Heritage Site – eyewitnesses
Addis AbabaReuters Forces from Ethiopia’s Tigray region have taken control of the town of Lalibela, whose famed rock-hewn churches are a United Nations World Heritage Site, and residents were fleeing, two eyewitnesses told Reuters on Thursday. Lalibela, also a holy site for millions of Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, is in the North Wollo Zone of the […]
At Orthodox Easter, pandemic and war hit tourism in Lalibela, holy Ethiopian site
Lalibela, EthiopiaReuters As they have done for hundreds of years on the Orthodox Easter weekend, priests wrapped in traditional white robes read the Bible by candlelight on Saturday evening in the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela in northern Ethiopia. The ancient ritual has been a tourist draw in recent years. Ethiopian Orthodox pilgrims attend the Easter […]