Ethiopian troops force armed group out of Orthodox holy site of Lalibela

RELIGIONS NEWS AGENCY (REDNA) –Ethiopian defence forces have pushed out Fano fighters to regain control of Lalibela, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Aljazeera reported the Ethiopian army on Thursday regained control of Lalibela, a UNESCO World Heritage site, following a pullout by a regional armed group whose fighters had overrun much of the historic town a day earlier.

Fierce fighting broke out on Wednesday morning with Fano fighters taking control of much of Lalibela and pushing the army back to a base on the town’s outskirts.

But the Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF) regained control on Thursday, residents said.

The Amhara region in northern Ethiopia has witnessed regular fighting throughout the year, raising concerns among residents and Amharas in the diaspora about the safety of Lalibela’s rock-hewn churches dating back to the 12th and 13th centuries. The town is a pilgrimage destination for Orthodox Christians.

Lidetu Ayalew, an Amhara politician based in the United States who grew up near Lalibela, said he feared the churches could be harmed. “The churches risk being struck and destroyed due to careless firing of heavy weapons,” he said in a statement on Monday.

Designated a World Heritage site by the United Nations in 1978, Lalibela’s 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.

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 places of worship.