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 Amhara region in Ethiopia's north. In recent weeks fighting
has spread from Tigray into two neighbouring regions, Amhara and Afar, forcing
around 250,000 people to flee.
Senior
officials from the United Nations and the United States government who visited
Ethiopia this week raised alarm at the widening of the war in Tigray to other
parts of northern Ethiopia.
Seyfu,
a resident of Lalibela who spoke to Reuters by phone, said he saw hundreds of
armed men speaking Tigrinya, the language of ethnic Tigrayans, walking through
the town on Thursday. He said they were not speaking Amharic, the language of
the people of Lalibela, and were wearing "different uniforms" from
those of the federal military.
Seyfu
said forces from the Amhara region, which are allied to Ethiopia’s central
government, fled on Wednesday night together with local officials.
Forces from Ethiopia’s Tigray region have taken control of the town of Lalibela, whose famed rock-hewn churches are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Fighting has spread from Tigray in recent weeks, forcing around 250,000 people to flee https://t.co/QJedgn7nrZ pic.twitter.com/y5udw9U9ti
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 6, 2021
“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.
A
second man, Dawit, told Reuters by phone he left Lalibela on Thursday morning
as Tigrayan forces were arriving. "We had to walk with on foot, around 200
of us left.”
Reuters
could not independently verify the eyewitnesses' information. Spokespeople for
the prime minister, the Ethiopian military and a government task force on
Tigray did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for
the Tigrayan forces could also not be reached for comment.
Daniel,
a third resident of Lalibela, told Reuters by phone that he saw hundreds of
soldiers entering the town around noon. He said he fled to the mountains
outside the holy city and that only women and children had been left in the
town.
He
said that there was no fighting in Lalibela when the Tigrayan forces entered.
The
United States on Thursday called on Tigrayan forces to respect the cultural
heritage of the town, as Washington's grows increasingly alarmed over the
widening of the conflict.
"We've
seen the reports that Tigrayan forces have taken Lalibela. We call on the TPLF
to protect this cultural heritage," State Department spokesman Ned Price
told reporters.
Lalibela
is a major tourist destination in Africa's second-most populous nation. Visitor
numbers plunged after war broke out in November in Tigray between the federal
army and forces belonging to the Tigray People's Liberation Forces (TPLF).
The
government declared victory at the end of that month, after seizing the
regional capital Mekelle. But the TPLF kept fighting and at the end of June
retook Mekelle and most of Tigray after government soldiers withdrew.
Dr
Fanta Mandefro, deputy president of the Amhara region, told Reuters on Thursday
that he had no information on the situation in Lalibela, which is 310 km (190
miles) east of the Amhara region's capital, Bahir Dar.
Tens
of thousands of visitors from around Ethiopia and abroad usually come to
Lalibela on the Orthodox Easter weekend, home to a UNESCO World Heritage site
of 12th and 13th century monolithic churches, to celebrate and witness the most
important holiday in the Orthodox calendar.
By Reuters
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