Hello Everyone,
I'm hear again to introduce myself to the Hive community, This is Tadesse in Ethiopia from Lalibela where you can find the most incredible monolithic rock churches around in the world and all the 11 rock churches are also registered by UNESCO in the 1978, the first world heritage site in ethiopia and I'm Local Guide for this town and for some other historical places in the northern part of Ethiopia and i loved my profession while i meet different people and got the different experience from my guests, i Actually guide to many foreign tourist i can say from all over in the world before the pandemic and the civil war starts in Ethiopia, But the Pandemic and the war hit tourism in Lalibela, holy Ethiopian site!
All this rock churches As they have done for hundreds of years on the Orthodox Easter weekend, priests wrapped in traditional white robes read the Bible by candlelight on Saturday evening in the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela in northern Ethiopia.
However, starting from the beginning of 2020 was a terrible year for the Ethiopian economy. International tensions with its neighbouring countries (namely Egypt, Sudan and Eritrea) the biggest locust invasion in decades widespread socio-political unrest following the murder of prominent singer-songwriter and activist Hachalu Hundessa the recent conflict and resulting humanitarian crisis in the Tigray region and, of course, the advent of COVID-19 and its related government restrictions have caused a “large, unprecedented shock to the country’s economy ”Indeed, the IMF expects Ethiopia’s GDP growth to be null in 2021.
Much like in the rest of the world, national and international travel restrictions have caused Ethiopia’s tourism sector to be hit the hardest, the effects are even more pronounced in Addis Ababa, where thousands of workers suddenly found themselves unemployed due to the closure of around 90% of hotels, tour operators, airlines, and other tourist related businesses. Things do not appear to be improving for the hospitality sector, since a recent “alarming” increase in COVID-19 infections has led the Ethiopian government to introduce even stricter travel measures.
What's began as a conflict between the Ethiopian Federal government and a local military in late 2020, exploded into a civil war in 2021 that has forced two million people to flee their homes and left hundreds of thousands of people in famine-like conditions. The war continues expanding, with displacements, ethnic killings and mass rape in the increasingly devastated region.
By the beginning of 2021, the war in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, then more than a month old, had forced tens of thousands of people to flee across the border to Sudan. Refugees reported ethnic massacres, sexual assaults and mass arrests.
In the months that followed, the humanitarian crisis deepened. More than a million people were displaced inside Ethiopia and aid workers warned of looming famine.
Anyways, I'm not sure that Hive community heard about our Ethiopia or not, Thanks for reading my experience and you can see down some pictures of the rock hewn churches of King lalibela.
Thanks again,
