Church officials say six Orthodox Christians killed in Arsi, as a resident says gunmen killed five at Finchaa sugar factory


A street view of Asella, the main town of Arsi zone in Oromia, in a 2021 file photo

A view of Asella, the main town of Arsi zone in Oromia region, June 8, 2021. Photo: Ayeleabebe / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0) [file photo]

Church officials say at least six Orthodox Christians were killed in Arsi attacks last week, and a resident told DW Amharic that gunmen killed five at the Finchaa sugar factory in western Oromia on Monday.

The Arsi attacks took place in Shirka and Honkolo Wabe, two woredas in the Arsi diocese of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, according to the Abay Times, an English-language Ethiopian news site that spoke with church officials and residents. In Shirka, a farmer was killed in his field in Sengo Yaya kebele on Tikimt 2, 2019 E.C. (October 12), and about 50 cattle belonging to several residents were driven off, a church worker told the site. On the night of Tikimt 7 (October 17), attackers killed a man and a woman in their homes in Hela Zenbaba kebele and took five people from their houses, he said, and a priest was seriously wounded and is being treated at Shirka hospital.

In neighboring Honkolo Wabe, three residents of Lalo kebele were killed while farming on Tikimt 5 (October 15), and they were buried the next day at Lalo Mariam church, a resident told the Abay Times. The website borkena, citing the church's diocese through the Mahibere Kidusan media service, named the dead as Getu Assefa, a farmer in Shirka, Zewde Habte and Esrasu Tesfaye, who were killed on October 17, and Zeneba Negash, Samuel Wasse and Biruh Abera, who were killed in Honkolo Wabe on October 15. It named the wounded priest as Nardos Assefa, as borkena gave the name.

The accounts differ on how many people were taken. Borkena reported that 55 Orthodox Christians were "dragged from their residences and kidnapped" on the day Getu Assefa was killed, and the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party (EPRP) said in a statement that about 50 people were taken from their homes. However, an official at the Shirka woreda church office told the Abay Times that the claim of 50 abductions on social media was wrong, that it was 50 cattle that were taken, and that five people were abducted in Shirka. Borkena also gave October 7 as the date of Getu Assefa's killing, while the EPRP and the church worker who spoke to the Abay Times placed it on Tikimt 2, which is October 12.

The killings spread quickly on X. The X account Piassa Tube wrote in Amharic, "How long will there be silence while innocent people are being slaughtered on their own land, on their own farms?" in Mereja's translation. Minilik Salsawi, who describes himself on X as a human rights activist and independent journalist, shared the church's account of the killings and abductions in Shirka and Honkolo Wabe, and another user, @TibebuAbera21, asked why repeated killings in one zone had not led to action.

In its statement, which DW Amharic reported, the EPRP said the silence of the authorities "forces us to say that the attack is structural," and it asked whether the "government" could not stop the attacks, did not want to, or whether there was "another matter hidden from the public about the truth of the attacks," in Mereja's translation. Borkena reported that the party called for an independent investigation. Local officials and the Oromia regional government had not commented publicly by Tuesday, the Abay Times reported. The government has blamed past attacks in Arsi on the group it calls "Shane," which calls itself the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), and the OLA has denied involvement in attacks on civilians in the past, according to borkena.

Mereja has asked the Government Communication Service to confirm or deny the reported killings in Shirka and Honkolo Wabe and the attack at the Finchaa sugar factory, with a deadline of noon ET on Thursday, and will update this story with any response.

The church worker told the Abay Times that four churches in Shirka have stopped holding services since 2017 E.C. and that the homes of 400 Christians have been destroyed. The Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO) said in a report this year that 458 people were killed and 38 remain missing in attacks in Arsi zone between 2014 E.C. and Ginbot 24, 2018 E.C., the site reported.

In western Oromia, armed men entered the grounds of the Finchaa sugar factory in Sulula Finchaa woreda at about 5 AM local time on Monday and opened fire, residents told DW Amharic. One resident said five people were killed, four of them militia members and one an unarmed resident, and that two factory workers were taken and had not been heard from. "There was heavy damage to property. They broke into the Commercial Bank and took money. About 40 motorcycles and four vehicles were burned," the resident told DW, in Mereja's translation, adding that the attackers were hit by a drone. Another resident said the fighting went on until about 9:30 AM but that the factory itself was not seriously damaged. DW said repeated attempts to reach the factory manager and the woreda administrator, Fentahun Taye, were not successful.

On X, several accounts linked the attack to the OLA. An account called Irbu Shiniga posted on Monday that the OLA's Western Zone had attacked the factory and listed weapons it said were captured, and Sajid Nadeem, who describes himself as a video journalist and conflict reporter, wrote that "over 100 security officials were killed," a figure that no other source Mereja found supports. The account The Horn African Guy also reported the claim of about 100 soldiers killed in an ambush and noted that "casualty figures remain unverified." The OLA has not issued a statement on the attack that Mereja could find. DW recalled that the factory said it suffered losses worth billions of birr in an earlier attack in May 2023.

Sources

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