In the Eritrean-Ethiopian War, tens of thousands of people were killed and tens of thousands were displaced. Ethiopia and Eritrea use the ancient Ge’ez script, one of the oldest alphabets still in use. One of his favourite Amharic poets is Kebele Michael (1912-1998), who spoke Amharic, Ge’ez, English, French, and Italian. He wrote poems, plays, history, and esoteric qəne (wax and gold) poetry, used in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Along with Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic, Tigrinya, and Maltese, Amharic is a Semitic language.