NAIROBI (AP):
Two attacks in Ethiopia’s Oromia region killed at least 60 Orthodox Christians, the country’s Orthodox Church said, urging the authorities to protect civilians and bring those responsible to justice.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church’s Holy Synod said on Monday that 14 people were killed in Merti district on October 20 and a further 46 in Shirka district on Saturday. Both districts are in Oromia’s Arsi Zone.
More than 20 people were seriously wounded and 20 homes were burned down, the church said, describing the killings as “brutal and merciless massacres”.
A Christian resident of a nearby town said he travelled to Tereta Chole, the village in Shirka district where Saturday’s attack took place, to attend funerals on Saturday and help transport the wounded. “We counted the injured people who were loaded onto the Isuzu truck,” he said.
A priest based in the same nearby town said he saw wounded people arriving at the hospital near his home. Some patients were later referred to other hospitals, he said. Both men spoke to The Associated Press by telephone on condition of anonymity because they feared for their safety.
Oromia regional government spokesperson Hailu Adugna blamed the Oromo Liberation Army, or OLA, for the attacks. He accused the rebels and their allies of trying to provoke ethnic and religious conflict to divert attention from military losses in northern Ethiopia. He presented no evidence in the statement to support the accusations.
Adugna expressed sorrow over the deaths and destruction and said that regional authorities had begun taking action against those responsible. He pledged assistance to people wounded or displaced.
The OLA couldn’t be reached for comment. Its leader, Kumsa Diriba, also known as Jaal Marroo, denied that his fighters target civilians in an interview with The Associated Press (AP) published in February.
“Our war is not against the people,” he said at the time.
The OLA is one of seven groups in the Ethiopian Peoples’ Forces Alliance for Survival, formed in September with the aim of removing Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government. Other members include the Tigray People’s Liberation Front and the Amhara Fano National Movement.
The church said that the attacks violated constitutional protections for religious freedom and the right to life. It called on the authorities to publicly condemn the killings and prevent further violence.
Oromia, Ethiopia’s largest region and home to roughly 40 million people, has endured a conflict between government forces and the OLA since 2018. Other armed groups and criminal gangs also operate there, with civilians facing killings, extortion and kidnapping.
UN investigators have accused the OLA of killings, rapes and kidnappings. Human- rights monitors have also documented abuses by government forces, including indiscriminate drone strikes, extrajudicial killings and disappearances.
Sarah Kimani, Amnesty International’s media manager, told the AP in a January interview that the organisation’s research documents summary executions, torture, abductions and rape by both government forces and the OLA.
She said that Internet blackouts and restrictions on independent media and civil society concealed the extent of civilian suffering.
“What we have been able to document now is just the tip of the iceberg,” Kimani said.
