By Giulia Paravicini and Dawit Endeshaw
NAIROBI/ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – 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 in Ethiopia’s most serious security crisis since a two-year civil war in neighbouring Tigray ended a year ago.
Fano fighters battled alongside the army during the war in Tigray, but relations between the two sides have soured, particularly after the federal government moved in April to integrate security forces operated by each region into the police and army.
On Sunday, Ethiopian soldiers fired heavy weapons 11 times from locations near the churches, a deacon said, sending damaging shockwaves through one of the subterranean monuments, which date back to the 12th and 13th Centuries.
“The vibrations are affecting the churches,” the deacon said, requesting anonymity for fears of reprisals.
Two residents confirmed the fresh wave of fighting. One said the Ethiopian army started fighting on Saturday and was stationed outside Lalibela and by the airport, firing heavy weapons towards the mountain overlooking the town.
Spokespeople for the Ethiopian government, the army and Amhara’s regional administration did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Lidetu Ayalew, an Amhara politician based in the United States who grew up near Lalibela, said he feared the churches could be struck and destroyed.
“The churches risk being struck and destroyed due to careless firing of heavy weapons,” he said in a statement on Monday.
The 11 medieval cave churches were carved out of monolithic blocks to form a “New Jerusalem”, after Muslim conquests halted Christian pilgrimages to the Holy Land, according to the United Nations, which designated them as a world heritage site in 1978.
Fighting in Amhara killed at least 183 people in the first month of the conflict, the United Nations said in late August. But with internet connections down across the region, Reuters has been unable to get a clear picture of the latest situation.
(Reporting by Giulia Paravicini and Dawit Endeshaw; Writing by Giulia Paravicini; Editing by Hereward Holland and Alex Richardson)
