By: Habte H.
How many times can a government fail to protect the same communities before its explanations lose all credibility? How many churches must burn, families flee, and civilians die before repeated promises of security are judged against what actually happens?
The repeated killing of Ethiopian Christians demands more than condolences. It demands accountability from the government entrusted with their protection. The central question is no longer simply who carried out each attack. It is also why those responsible for public security have repeatedly failed to prevent the next one.
This is an urgent appeal to Christian leaders worldwide, Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and every government with influence in Ethiopia: demand protection for threatened communities and consequences for those responsible for their suffering.
Repeated Attacks Demand More Than Condolences
In June 2026, the World Council of Churches reported Ethiopian Orthodox Patriarch Abune Mathias’s appeal following renewed violence in Arsi. Its account described killings, displacement, burned churches, and destroyed property. Church leaders demanded decisive government action to protect Orthodox Christians and their clergy. Their appeal reflected profound alarm at recurring violence and the absence of adequate protection.
Open Doors separately reported attacks beginning on 30 May, including the destruction of the historic Telata St. Gabriel Church and the displacement of more than 280 people. Its account also described earlier attacks against Orthodox Christians in Arsi. These reports demand scrutiny of the continuing failures that leave communities exposed.
The Ethiopian government must answer for those failures. Protecting citizens is a fundamental responsibility of the government. When communities experience repeated attacks, officials cannot discharge that responsibility by expressing sorrow, identifying an alleged enemy, and waiting for public attention to move elsewhere.
The Government Must Answer for Its Conduct
Every recurrence raises sharper questions. What did authorities know? What warnings did they receive? Who decided whether to deploy security forces? How quickly did those forces respond? Which suspects were prosecuted after previous attacks? Were officials investigated for negligence, obstruction, or possible collaboration?
These questions belong at the centre of public debate. The government should be required to answer them through evidence that independent investigators can examine.
Allegations that officials deliberately withheld protection or collaborated with attackers are exceptionally serious. The available reporting cited here does not establish a government-directed campaign of genocide. It does, however, establish compelling grounds to demand an independent investigation into the attacks and the authorities’ response. That investigation must have the authority to examine possible complicity at every level.
The Prosperity Party’s leadership must face political scrutiny alongside any criminal investigation. A ruling party cannot claim credit for governing while avoiding responsibility for persistent failures of civilian protection. Its performance must be assessed through lives protected, perpetrators prosecuted, and displaced families able to return safely.
Naming an armed group is insufficient. Even where an attacker’s identity is established, questions about government conduct remain. Did officials take reasonable preventive action? Did they act on warnings? Did they protect survivors and preserve evidence? Did they permit impartial investigation? Announcing a culprit cannot substitute for answering these questions.
Christian and World Leaders Must Act
Christian leaders should speak with greater clarity. They should demand independent access to affected communities, public reporting on investigations, protection for witnesses, and sustained assistance for survivors. Their engagement should continue beyond statements issued after each tragedy.
Trump, Putin, and other influential leaders should make these demands part of their engagement with Ethiopian authorities. Diplomatic relationships should carry clear expectations concerning civilian protection. Where credible evidence implicates individuals in grave abuses, targeted measures should be considered with appropriate evidentiary safeguards. Humanitarian assistance must continue reaching those whose lives have been devastated.
Ethiopians abroad also have a role. Peaceful demonstrations, parliamentary advocacy, support for independent reporting, and assistance to survivors can sustain pressure for accountability. Carefully verified evidence will make that pressure harder to dismiss.
Accountability, Peaceful Change, and Protection for All
Ethiopians have every right to demand a change of leadership through peaceful, democratic means when those governing them repeatedly fail to protect their lives. International partners should defend their freedom to organize, speak, investigate, and seek political change without intimidation.
This appeal must also reject collective blame and retaliation. Protecting Christians requires holding perpetrators and responsible officials accountable as individuals. Muslim neighbours and other religious communities should be partners in that effort. Ethiopian Islamic and interreligious bodies have also condemned violence in Arsi, demonstrating the importance of solidarity against attacks on civilians.
The demand is clear: the Ethiopian government must protect threatened communities, open its conduct to independent investigation, and answer publicly for repeated failures. Any official found to have enabled, concealed, or participated in atrocities must face justice.
A government’s legitimacy must be tested by whether its citizens can live safely under its authority. Ethiopian Christians deserve that protection now. They should never have to survive another massacre before their government is compelled to account for the last.
Editor’s Note: Views in the article do not necessarily reflect the views of borkena.com
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