Israel sends firefighters to assist in Ethiopian mountain blaze – Jerusalem Post

The mountains are one of the country’s main tourist attractions and have faced blazes on and off over the last two weeks. Its national park is home to several rare animal species

By Ilanit Chernick

April 15, 2019

Firefighters unravel hose. (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)

Israel has sent a team of firefighters to Ethiopia to battle the forest fires raging in the Simien Mountains, the Foreign Ministry announced on Sunday morning. The snow-capped mountains are one of the country’s main tourist attractions and have faced blazes intermittently over the last two weeks. The Simien Mountains National Park was registered on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1978 because it contains several rare animal species including the Abyssinian wolf, the Waliya ibex and Gelada baboon.

“Under the instruction of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Defense, a special delegation of firefighters arrived in Addis Ababa on Sunday morning to help extinguish the huge fire that has raged for two weeks in the Simien Mountains area in northern Ethiopia,” the ministry said.