Church reports a surge in violence and abductions targeting Orthodox Christians across districts in Oromia’s Arsi zone
Borkena Desk
TORONTO, Canada — The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church East Arsi Diocese on Monday announced that gunmen in different districts of the diocese killed six members of the church and kidnapped 55 others.
Mahibere Kidusan cited the diocese to report that the killings took place between October 12 and October 17.
One of the victims is identified as Getu Assefa, a farmer in the Sherka district of the East Arsi zone, in the Oromia region of Ethiopia. He was killed while on his farm on October 7, and his body was left at the scene bearing clear signs of a violent killing. On the same day, 55 Orthodox Christians were dragged from their residences and kidnapped.
On October 17, gunmen operating in the region carried out further killings in the district, claiming the lives of Ato Zewde Habte and Esrasu Tesfaye. On this day, Firde Assefa, Genna Assefa, Efa Zenebe, Asnake Zewde, and Wokayehu Mersha were also kidnapped from the district.
In the Honkelo Wabe district, three Orthodox Christians were killed on October 15. The victims are identified as Zeneba Negash, Samuel Wasse, and Biruh Abera.
Furthermore, Priest Nardos Assefa sustained severe wounds in the attack and was admitted to a hospital.
Sources close to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church have confirmed the latest round of killings.
Federal and regional government authorities had not denied or confirmed the attack at the time of this writing.
Recurring attacks have targeted Ethiopian Orthodox Christians in the Arsi zone of the Oromia region for more than seven years, with frequency increasing in recent years.
The Ethiopian Church has urged the government to end attacks in the region and fulfill its responsibility to defend citizens’ right to worship. However, the security situation in Arsi for Orthodox Christians does not appear to be improving.
Last week, Ethiopian Orthodox Church Patriarch His Holiness Abune Mathias stated during the inauguration of a church building in Addis Ababa that there has been no change despite leadership transitions.
The government links the killings and attacks against Orthodox Christians to the group it calls “Shane”—a militant ethno-nationalist group operating across the Oromia region of Ethiopia that calls itself the “Oromo Liberation Army.” In the past, the group has denied involvement in attacks and civilian kidnappings.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church has not yet released a formal statement regarding the latest attacks.
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This is the result of what has been propagated by bigots and connivers since the late 1960’s. They demonize groups of people using the ‘N’ word against our noble Amhara brothers and sisters. They called citizens who made places away from their birth villages ‘land grabbing settlers’. They lambasted from the top of their lungs with ‘Ethiopia, Out of Oromia’ and they know for fact that Oromos had played extremely critical roles in the founding of the old county that produced us all. They used the term my Oromos use to show they are proud to be Oromos, “Oromummaa’ as pejoratives. They criminalize our noble Tigre brothers and sisters wholesale. They incite the hapless unemployed young Oromo by telling him ‘You see that farmer over there? He is not an Oromo and is the reason why you are unemployed and destitute. Go there whack him to death’. This is how this tragic barbaric act was carried out. What would you think the consequences be when a leader of a region open his blabber mouth telling a crowd at a rally he organized in haste ‘We have broken the backs of an armed militia of our centuries old oppressor empire’ and by saying so criminalizing the entire current generation that is totally innocent of what took place 5 or more generations ago.
Now, I remember a video I watched several years ago showing a parade by a well trained militia for the purpose of keeping citizens safe in this very region. Where is it now? The rumor is some of them being implicated in atrocities committed against the very citizens they are hired for to protect. Al-Toweel The 2nd of Oromia needs to explain that. Such barbaric act makes me ashamed as an Oromo. We Oromos are natural born harmonious people except for the few scabs among us. We have seen that when Oromos were murdered in the most savage ways because they tried to protect their Amhara or non-Oromo neighbors. Our upright Amhara brothers and sisters would do the same to protect their non-Amhara neighbors. Tigres, Afars, Somalis and the rest of more than 80 groups of people will do the same.