Fire has damaged a historical landmark in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
Fire department commander Tadesse Gemechu said two people were taken to hospital after being rescued from the fire at the Itegue Taitu Hotel, which occupies a building constructed in 1907.
Tadesse says the cause of the fire is being investigated. Many of the hotel’s rooms, historic pieces and a bank office were completely destroyed before firefighters put out the blaze. Jazz Amba, the city’s famous ‘jazz revival’ club, frequented by tourists and locals alike, was also completely gutted by the inferno.
The hotel played host to novelist Evelyn Waugh, who used it as a setting for his 1938 novel ‘Scoop’, a satire about a fictional young journalist, William Boot, mistakenly sent to cover a foreign war in a notional East African state called Ishmaelia .
Addis Ababa’s Deputy Mayor Abate Sitotaw said efforts will be made to restore the hotel, which is situated in the capital’s central Piazza district, one of the busiest areas in one of the fastest growing cities in Africa.
