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More than 500 rape cases have been reported to five clinics in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, the United Nations said on Thursday, warning that the actual numbers were likely to be much higher due to stigma and a lack of health services. “Women say they have been raped by armed actors, they also told stories of gang rape, rape in front of family members and men being forced to rape their own family members under the threat of violence,” Wafaa Said, deputy U.N. aid coordinator in Ethiopia, said in a briefing to U.N. member states in New York. She said at...

Ethiopia was invaded by the Italian troops during a military campaign that lasted from 1935 to 1936. After Italy declared war on the United Kingdom in 1940, British forces invaded and took Ethiopia in 1941. At the time, Ullendorff was a British army officer who was also a young scholar with extensive knowledge of Ethiopian history and languages, Parfitt told Live Science. "He went to the Church of Mary of Zion with a couple of soldiers," Parfitt said. He spoke to the monks in the church in Amharic, a language widely spoken in Ethiopia, asking to see the ark. His...

After being forced to abandon their excavation in March after just eight days because of coronavirus, the team led by the Centre's Dr. Michela Gaudiello decided to use a drone to help with their research. Today, only large, several-meter stone pillars on the top of the hill towering over the surrounding area remain on the surface after the medieval church in Debre Gergis ('Georgios Monastery'). Dr. Gaudiello said: "The locals know that there was once a Christian temple in this place, but due to the poor condition it is not known exactly in which period it was built and what...

Archaeologists now can more closely date when the religion spread to the Aksumite EmpireIn the dusty highlands of northern Ethiopia, a team of archaeologists recently uncovered the oldest known Christian church in sub-Saharan Africa, a find that sheds new light on one of the Old World’s most enigmatic kingdoms—and its surprisingly early conversion to Christianity. An international assemblage of scientists discovered the church 30 miles northeast of Aksum, the capital of the Aksumite kingdom, a trading empire that emerged in the first century A.D. and would go on to dominate much of eastern Africa and western Arabia. Through radiocarbon dating...

Hamburg - Archaeologists believe they have found the Queen of Sheba's palace at Axum, Ethiopia and an altar which held the most precious treasure of ancient Judaism, the Ark of the Covenant, the University of Hamburg said Wednesday. Scientists from the German city made the startling find during their spring excavation of the site over the past three months. The Ethiopian queen was the bride of King Solomon of Israel in the 10th century before the Christian era. The royal match is among the memorable events in the Bible. Ethiopian tradition claims the Ark, which allegedly contained Moses' stone...

The Axum Obelisk Coming Home to Ethiopia Mon Apr 18, 2005 By ANTHONY MITCHELL, Associated Press Writer AXUM, Ethiopia - A teenage Abebe Alenayehu watched Italian soldiers haul away Axum's revered obelisk nearly seven decades ago and never thought he would live to see its return. But if the weather cooperates, he will see the dream he shares with his nation come true Tuesday when a giant cargo plane returns the monument's 82-foot top section to this wind-swept town that was the seat of the ancient Axumite Kingdom. "The memory still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth," Abebe said...

Italy Returns Stolen Obelisk to Ethiopia By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News Nov. 23, 2004 — A cyclopean task will put to an end a decades-long diplomatic dispute between Italy and Ethiopia over a looted obelisk, according to a bilateral agreement signed last week in Rome. Signed by Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin and Italian Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Alfredo Mantica, the deal set up the final details over the transport of a 160-ton granite stele from Rome to the city of Axum. “ This is a symbol of national identity to Ethiopians. ” The monument is one of a group of...

<p>ROME, Italy (Reuters) -- Lightning has damaged a 3,000-year-old obelisk which Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's troops plundered from Ethiopia and brought to the heart of Rome before World War II.</p> <p>Lightning struck the obelisk late on Monday and chipped chunks of stone from the top of the 24-metre (75-foot) artefact, looted from the holy city of Axum in 1937 after fascist Italy annexed the Horn of Africa country.</p>