Two attacks in Ethiopia’s Oromia region killed at least 60 Orthodox Christians, the country’s Orthodox Church said, prompting calls from church leaders for authorities to protect civilians and bring those responsible to justice.
According to witness accounts reported by Vatican News, the assailants went from house to house in an area inhabited by Muslims, Protestants, and Orthodox Christians, killing residents with gunfire and knives.
The Trump administration has so far issued no formal public statement addressing the specific targeted massacres of Orthodox Christians in Oromia, even as open letters and international appeals urge U.S. leadership to intervene.
Meanwhile, major American conservative news outlets, including Fox News, have largely omitted coverage of the killings of Christians in the region, while ABC News, the BBC, Associated Press, and many other mainstream media outlets have reported on it.
Christians represent roughly 60% of Ethiopia’s population—one of the world’s oldest Christian communities—dominated by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church at 43.5%, followed by a growing Protestant population at 18.6% and a small Catholic minority at 0.7%.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church’s Holy Synod said Monday that 14 people were killed in Merti district on Oct. 20 and a further 46 in Shirka district on Saturday. Both districts are located 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 traveled to Tereta Chole, the village in Shirka district where Saturday’s attack took place, to attend funerals 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.
One resident, whose 75-year-old father was killed, described it as an ambush and told the BBC, “We were completely unprepared and had no prior knowledge. They surrounded us from all four directions.”
The Ethiopian Human Rights Council said in a report released in July 2026 that 458 people had been killed in attacks in that area over the previous four years.
But this is one of the most deadly attacks in that period.
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 could not 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 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 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.
U.N. 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 organization’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.
U.S. Diplomatic Response and Security Context
The violence comes amid broader security warnings for the region. On Oct. 17, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio addressed regional instability during remarks to reporters at Joint Base Andrews, acknowledging ongoing separatist activity inside Ethiopia and rising tensions along the border with Eritrea.
While Rubio reiterated the importance of measured responses to security threats, the administration has not issued a specific diplomatic statement regarding the Arsi Zone massacres.
The State Department’s Travel Advisory for Ethiopia remains at Level 3: Reconsider Travel, with multiple regions listed under Level 4: Do Not Travel due to armed conflict, civil unrest, crime, and kidnapping.
The advisory specifically urges Americans to avoid travel to the Oromia region—with the exception of Bishoftu and Bale Mountains National Park—citing active armed conflict, ethnically motivated violence, and widespread unrest.
The advisory also highlights severe communications disruptions, warning that frequent shut-offs of internet and cellular services impair the U.S. Embassy’s ability to assist American citizens outside Addis Ababa.
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