The Ethiopian community in Toronto, Canada, have joined their compatriots in other parts of the world in urging the immediate return of the Aksum obelisk looted by Mussolini in 1937, and not yet returned in accordance with the Italian Peace Treaty of 1937.
The Executive Director of the Ethiopian Association in Toronto, Inc., Ato Noah Amberber, has written on matter to the Italian ambassador in Addis Ababa, His Excellency Mr. Maurizio Melani. In his letter he says:
"I am sure that Your Excellency is very much aware of the fact that this pride of Ethiopians was looted on the personal orders of the dictator Benito Mussolini, under whose misrule both Ethiopia and Italy suffered.
"I am appealing to Your Excellency directly to take this matter up, and to restore the obelisk to its rightful owner, Ethiopia".
In a related development the "Voice", the principal black newspaper in London, quoted a spokesman of the Addis Ababa-based Aksum Obelisk Return Committee as demanding the obelisk's restitution, and declaring: "It is a crying shame that the Italian government have kept it so long. We are always prepared to wait for justice, but when it becomes a matter of 50 years, we become impatient".