Ongoing armed conflict in Ethiopia is endangering centuries-old monasteries on the islands of Lake Tana (a large highland lake in the Amhara region considered the source of the Blue Nile), home to some of Africa's oldest Christian heritage sites. The fighting has disrupted access to the monasteries and placed their irreplaceable religious art, manuscripts, and architecture at risk. The threat underscores the broader cultural toll of Ethiopia's prolonged internal conflict, which has already caused widespread humanitarian devastation across the country's northern regions.