Addis Ababa, 27 October 2026. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church released a chilling toll on Monday. At least 60 of its followers were killed within four days in two separate attacks in Oromia, the country’s largest region.
The first assault struck Gora Silingo, in Angada kebele of Merti district, on 20 October, leaving 14 dead. Four days later, on the night of 24 October, gunmen targeted the villages of Tereta, Chole and Birbo in neighbouring Shirka district, where 46 people were killed. Both areas lie in the Arsi Zone, some 270 kilometres south of the capital. According to the Church, more than 20 people were seriously wounded and around twenty homes were burned to the ground.
In its statement, the Holy Synod described the killings as brutal and merciless massacres. It called on the authorities to publicly condemn the violence, protect civilians and bring those responsible to justice. Elderly people and children are among the victims, according to early accounts gathered on the ground.
Testimonies from Shirka point to a coordinated assault. Residents describe attackers surrounding the villages from all sides and setting fire to homes near the churches. The Ethiopian news site Borkena reports that people in Gobesa, the district’s administrative seat, pleaded in vain with police and security forces to step in. A church official said security forces did arrive but were unable to stop the killing. Churches in nearby villages took in survivors as they fled.
No group has claimed responsibility. The authorities accuse a rebel coalition of staging targeted attacks to inflame ethnic and religious tensions in an area where Muslims, Protestants and Orthodox Christians live side by side. Since 2018, Oromia has been the scene of a conflict between federal forces and the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), compounded by other armed groups and criminal networks. Civilians there face killings, kidnappings and extortion.
United Nations investigators have accused the OLA of killings, rapes and abductions. Human rights groups, for their part, have documented abuses blamed on government forces, including indiscriminate drone strikes, extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances.
These killings extend a grim run of violence against the region’s Orthodox community. Borkena had already counted 21 deaths in Shirka in February, 34 in March, then more than 37 between late May and early June. Since 2023, the monitoring group ACLED has recorded a steady rise in attacks on Orthodox Christians. The latest toll remains provisional and could climb further.
