The flag of Ethiopia. Ethnic violence erupting on Tuesday between the Amhara residents and Tigray forces. Photo: Soman via Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – A group of Israeli youth volunteering in Gondar, Ethiopia have been safely moved by Israel’s Foreign Ministry and the Jewish Agency to the local airport following reports of ethnic violence erupting on Tuesday between the Amhara residents and Tigray forces.

The Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) entered Gondar in the middle of the night to arrest members of a committee that works with the Wolkait and Tegede people who have been asking the government to recognize them as Amharas and “abolish the Tigrayan identity imposed on them by the regime 25 years ago,” Ethiopian Satellite Television News reported.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nachshon confirmed that the volunteers, who are part of a Jewish Agency program called Project Ten, are waiting to fly out of northern Ethiopia. Project Ten sends Israelis and Jews from around the world to work in different agricultural, educational and health projects in various countries.