Ethiopian Officials Apologize for Textbooks Placing the Ras Dashen Mountain in Tigray Region

Ethiopian authorities have apologized for publishing school textbooks which mistakenly assigned Ras Dashen, the highest mountain in the country, to the Tigray region instead of the Amhara region where it is located.

The Ministry of Education apologized for the mistake in the sixth and tenth-grade textbooks amid raging anti-government protests, local media reported.

The sixth grade English textbook, which contained the erroneous maps of Ethiopia’s regional states, was published in 2004. The misleading map was also included in a tenth-grade nationality and ethics textbook published in 2010.

Ethiopia’s education officials did not specify the reason for the apology’s timing. However, widespread anti-government demonstrations have engulfed the East African country.

Activists opposed to Ethiopia’s ruling administration have dismissed the apology, arguing that the changes to the map were an intentional scheme to falsify the country’s history, the BBC reported.

Ethiopia’s largest ethnic groups located in the Amhara and Oromia regions have been involved in the violent protests sparked by boundary disagreements.

According to Human Rights Watch, more than 400 people have died since the protests began last November in the Oromia region. Up to 100 protesters are estimated to have died this year after several clashes between demonstrators and the police.

[Photo by SarahTz/CC BY 2.0]