Pro-government Ethiopian forces today recaptured Lalibela, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that had been under the control of the Tigray rebels since August, the government said.
The army “captured the historic city of Lalibela and the international airport,” the government press service said.
Lalibela, in the Amhara province bordering Tigray, is famous for its rock-cut churches, and Unesco has listed it as a World Heritage Site.
According to the announcement, the army is “marching towards the city of Sekota” in northern Ethiopia, while the fighting has expanded to Debre Sina, a city less than 200 kilometers from the capital Addis Ababa.
Earlier, the federal government said it had recaptured the Seoua Robit community, 220 miles (220 km) from the capital, a week after it was taken over by guerrillas.
The army and guerrillas of the Tigray Liberation Front (TPLF) have been fighting for about a year in northern Ethiopia. In June, insurgents recaptured almost the entire province of Tigray and then invaded the neighboring provinces of Afar and Amhara, announcing that they had captured the cities of Desi and Kombolcha, on a strategically important road leading to the capital.
The fighting is now focused on three fronts, one of which is near Debre Sina.
Fearing that the guerrillas would march on Addis Ababa, many countries (US, France, Britain and others) called on their citizens to leave Ethiopia as soon as possible.
War broke out in November 2020 after Prime Minister Abi Ahmed sent troops to Tigray to oust the TPLF-based local authorities who were in defiance of his authority. Many thousands were killed and more than two million were displaced during the 13 months of the war.
The UN Secretary-General reiterated his call for a ceasefire in Ethiopia tonight and called for unhindered access to humanitarian aid. “There is no excuse for targeting ethnic groups and arbitrary arrests, nor for detaining UN staff,” he told reporters in New York.
SOURCE: AMPE
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Source From: Capital
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