Ethiopia demands UK returns looted sacred objects

Tony Blair must return Ethiopian sacred objects and ancient artefacts looted by British troops more than a century ago and now locked up in museums and royal palaces, a leading scholar demanded today.

The British prime minister – scheduled to arrive in Ethiopia tomorrow to explore new ways of helping Africa – should repatriate rare religious books and manuscripts and hundreds of other Ethiopian treasures, historian Richard Pankhurst said in Addis Ababa.