Church Says 60 Christians Killed as Ethiopia’s Armed Crisis Spreads
At least 60 Ethiopian Orthodox Christians were killed in two attacks in Oromia over five days, according to the church’s Holy Synod—a civilian slaughter now being pulled into Ethiopia’s widening war of accusations before anyone has established who fired the shots.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church said 14 believers were killed in Merti district on October 20 and another 46 in Shirka district on October 24. Both districts lie in Oromia’s Arsi Zone. The church also reported that attackers burned more than 20 homes and left more than 20 people seriously wounded.
The dead deserve more than a propaganda contest.
The Oromia regional government blamed the Oromo Liberation Army and allied rebels, accusing them of trying to ignite ethnic and religious conflict. It supplied no evidence. A source linked to a rebel alliance fighting government forces in northern Ethiopia blamed the regional government, citing conversations with two residents. The OLA did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
That leaves the most important fact uncomfortably clear: civilians were killed, homes burned and families displaced while armed actors traded allegations that independent investigators have not verified.
Associated Press reporting adds direct testimony from the aftermath. A Christian resident said he travelled to Tereta Chole, the village attacked in Shirka, to attend funerals and help move the wounded. “We counted the injured people who were loaded onto the Isuzu truck,” he said. A local priest separately described seeing wounded people arrive at a nearby hospital. Both witnesses withheld their names because they feared for their safety.
The church called the killings “brutal and merciless massacres” and demanded protection for civilians and accountability. Regional spokesperson Hailu Adugna said authorities had started pursuing those responsible and would assist the wounded and displaced. Those promises now face a simple test: whether officials secure the area, preserve evidence and permit an investigation that does not begin with a political verdict.
A national crisis with local bodies
Oromia is Ethiopia’s largest and most populous region. Its long-running conflict pits federal and regional forces against the OLA, but the violence does not fit a clean two-sided map. Local militias, ethnic grievances, political repression and battles over land and authority repeatedly place civilians between forces that claim to speak for them.
The danger is growing because Oromia’s crisis no longer stands alone. Last month, seven armed groups announced an alliance aimed at removing Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government. Fighting has also intensified in Tigray, where the 2022 Pretoria agreement was supposed to end a war that killed vast numbers of civilians and displaced millions.
When conflict fronts converge, religious identity becomes combustible material. A massacre of Orthodox Christians can be used to mobilize fear, justify retaliation or turn a political war into a communal one. That is precisely why unsupported blame is not a harmless messaging tactic. It can become the next weapon.
The Ethiopian state has the power—and the duty—to stop that sequence. It should publish the victims’ names, protect survivors and witnesses, disclose arrest and forensic evidence, and allow credible independent scrutiny. Armed groups must also answer for forces operating under their command instead of hiding behind denials and counterclaims.
Sixty deaths are not an abstraction in Ethiopia’s conflict ledger. They are a warning that unresolved wars are merging, while civilians remain the easiest targets and the least powerful witnesses.
Sources and image credits
Hero/card archive photo: Francisco Anzola / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0, February 22, 2016; cropped and overlaid. It does not depict the attacks.
Inline archive photo: Time00 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, September 30, 2014. It does not depict the attacks.
Comments