Israel concerned over safety of its citizens in Ethiopia

The Israeli authorities have expressed concern over the safety of their citizens in Ethiopia amid the imposed state of emergency in one of the regions of the African country due to armed clashes.

The Jewish Foreign Ministry urged Israelis to refrain from travelling to the region and advised those already there not to leave their homes, TASS reports.

The ministry's recommendation primarily concerns the area of Gondar city in Amhara state in northern Ethiopia, where a special state of emergency has been declared. “

Amid several violent clashes between local armed groups and federal security forces that occurred in the Gondar district in the past few days, roads around Gondar are blocked and Gondar airport is closed. Israelis in the Gondar, Wallo and Gojjam regions are advised to stay at home, stay within reach by phone, proceed with utmost caution and report their situation to the Israeli Embassy in Addis Ababa or to the Foreign Ministry's Situation Centre," the statement said.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry also advises against travelling to Amhara State and generally advises its citizens to carefully weigh the advisability of visiting Ethiopia. For his part, Israeli Minister of Repatriation and Integration Ofir Sofer said that the Israeli government is closely following the developments and considers the safety of its citizens in the region paramount.

In the northwest of Ethiopia are the areas of the historical settlement of the Falasha people, or Ethiopian Jews, a special ethnolinguistic group whose representatives profess Judaism and consider themselves distant descendants of the ancient Jews. At the end of the 20th century, most Ethiopian Jews were repatriated to Israel, where they now amount to more than 160,000, or 1.75 per cent of the country's population.