Inter Religious Council Of Ethiopia "Findings" On Arsi Orthodox Massacre Angers Many

New killings of Ethiopian Orthodox Church followers reported that the Council disparage attacks on Orthodox Christians

Borkena

Toronto – The Inter Religious Council of Ethiopia on Monday announced the first report on “findings” into the killings in the Arsi zone over the past few weeks.

Reports citing residents and Church bodies from the region were indicating that the killings were particularly targeting followers of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church.

However, the The Inter Religious Council of Ethiopia ruled that the killings in Sherka, Guna, Merti and Holonko districts of the Arsi were not against followers of a single religion.

“The people who were killed, those who were wounded and whose properties were destroyed were not followers of one region and their clerics. Killing was conducted without discrimination based on religion and ethnicity,” it council said, citing the report from the “investigation.” The report has angered many. They fear what they see as cover up could even lead to more killings of Orthodox Christians.

In other words, the council is taking a position that the killings did not target Orthodox Church followers and their clergies. The council is believed to have government affiliation.

Abiy Ahmed’s ruling prosperity party has a history of denial and cover up of killings of innocent civilians in the Oromia region of Ethiopia.

A coalition of four opposition parties operating in the country last week called for an independent investigation of the incidents.

Killings against followers of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church have been recurring in the area since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took power in 2018. A noticeable number of Ethiopian activists and active Ethiopian opposition tend to see the unending killings of Orthodox Christians in the Oromia region as a calculated campaign of ethnic cleansing. Thousands have reportedly been displaced from the area.

The task force mandated to investigate the killing was drawn from “stake holders” and dispatched to the areas on November 4, 2024, it was said.

The council also said that the task force spent five days in the four districts where there was a killing.

“Accordingly, the investigating committee has gathered information from local residents and from ‘compatriots’ who were victims of the attack,” said the statement which was read out to media outlets in Addis Ababa.

Regarding perpetrators of the attack, the council said they are “groups who call themselves with different names who vanish into the nearby jungles whenever government security forces are deployed to the areas whose identity is not officially known for the time being.”

It said so citing residents from the area. However, the task force recommended that the government should provide protection to the residents, indicating that the danger residents are facing is not a thing of the past.

It is known that Arsi is one of the areas where radical ethnic Oromo nationalists operate. The armed groups particularly operating in this area are said to have radical Islamic religious sentiment.

Meanwhile, three other followers of Ethiopian Orthodox Church followers were killed in Teleta locality of Arsi. According to sources close to Ethiopian Orthodox Church, the victims are identified as Deacon Eyob Ejigu, Tilahun Boge and Tsadkane Serawitu (ten years old boy).

They were killed on November 10 around 9 A.M. local time in the Teleta St. Gabriel Church while they were working on a harvest in their farm.

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No matter who perpetrated this savage act or who was victimized, the killings should never be condoned. What puzzles me is how these well educated among us who hail from that area have kept their mouths zip locked on the matter. They must have first hand information about it since they have close relatives who still live there. I have done my own vetting through my merchant relatives since I read news about it.

The two major religions of that country had their own unordinary ways how they set their feet in Arsi and the adjoining Western Hararghe region. There are Muslims with Sunni majority dabbled with previous and current traditional ways that has resisted the extremist Wahhabi ways. There are plenty of those who profess Christianity that got there by Orthodox, Catholic and Evangelical missionaries. Catholic and Evangelical missionaries had better success in converting a considerable number of the indigenous youth to their brand of Christianity. As an example, there was a large local Oromo Catholic community in Bekaa which is not too far from the vicinity of Asabot where I was born and spent my formative years. I also remember that most of the devout adherents of the Orthodox denomination were Oromos who migrated to the areas from the Selale region. One of my childhood friends was named Gemechu and he was not a Māori but a red blooded Christian Oromo. Many of our glorious athletes are from that region. The Dibaba sisters ain’t Filipinas. Derertu Tulu who made this beyond repair Afro-Ethio-Centric cry like a cranky baby when she won the 10,000 meters in the 1992 Olympics. She ain’t a Navajo. Kenenisa Bekele never told us he is a Taiwanese. They are Christian Oromos through and through. These will not be spared if demons target Christians. They could be Orthodox, Catholics and Evangelists. They must have been Amharas, Oromos and many other ethnic groups. Are Orthodox less of a human than other types Christianity? Are Catholics less of a human than other types Christianity? Are Amharas less of a human than other ethnic groups? Are Oromos less of a human than other ethnic groups? And so on.

We have to be religion and ethnic blind in reporting such barbaric acts. We should never be motivated by trying to feed on the raw emotion of the gullible out there. We should leave that to the satanic bigots and connivers among us.

1 COMMENT

Ittu Aba Farda November 12, 2025 At 2:37 pm
No matter who perpetrated this savage act or who was victimized, the killings should never be condoned. What puzzles me is how these well educated among us who hail from that area have kept their mouths zip locked on the matter. They must have first hand information about it since they have close relatives who still live there. I have done my own vetting through my merchant relatives since I read news about it.
The two major religions of that country had their own unordinary ways how they set their feet in Arsi and the adjoining Western Hararghe region. There are Muslims with Sunni majority dabbled with previous and current traditional ways that has resisted the extremist Wahhabi ways. There are plenty of those who profess Christianity that got there by Orthodox, Catholic and Evangelical missionaries. Catholic and Evangelical missionaries had better success in converting a considerable number of the indigenous youth to their brand of Christianity. As an example, there was a large local Oromo Catholic community in Bekaa which is not too far from the vicinity of Asabot where I was born and spent my formative years. I also remember that most of the devout adherents of the Orthodox denomination were Oromos who migrated to the areas from the Selale region. One of my childhood friends was named Gemechu and he was not a Māori but a red blooded Christian Oromo. Many of our glorious athletes are from that region. The Dibaba sisters ain’t Filipinas. Derertu Tulu who made this beyond repair Afro-Ethio-Centric cry like a cranky baby when she won the 10,000 meters in the 1992 Olympics. She ain’t a Navajo. Kenenisa Bekele never told us he is a Taiwanese. They are Christian Oromos through and through. These will not be spared if demons target Christians. They could be Orthodox, Catholics and Evangelists. They must have been Amharas, Oromos and many other ethnic groups. Are Orthodox less of a human than other types Christianity? Are Catholics less of a human than other types Christianity? Are Amharas less of a human than other ethnic groups? Are Oromos less of a human than other ethnic groups? And so on.
We have to be religion and ethnic blind in reporting such barbaric acts. We should never be motivated by trying to feed on the raw emotion of the gullible out there. We should leave that to the satanic bigots and connivers among us.

Inter Religious Council Of Ethiopia “Findings” On Arsi Orthodox Massacre Angers Many

1 COMMENT

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