{"id":838299,"date":"2026-10-25T12:40:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T16:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/?p=838299"},"modified":"2026-10-25T12:40:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T16:40:00","slug":"more-than-40-killed-and-buried-in-one-grave-after-attack-on-two-villages-in-arsis-shirka-woreda-residents-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/838299","title":{"rendered":"More than 40 killed and buried in one grave after attack on two villages in Arsi’s Shirka woreda, residents say"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/figure>\n

A man stands beside the mass grave in Chole, Shirka woreda, where people killed in the October 24, 2026 attack were buried, in a still from a video shared on X. Image: video shared by @neby_G via X<\/em><\/p>\n

Gunmen killed more than 40 people, at least five of them children, in an attack on two villages in Shirka woreda in Oromia's Arsi area on Saturday, residents and church sources said.<\/p>\n

Three residents told BBC Amharic that 46 people were killed, and residents and church sources said the dead were buried together in a single pit at St. Raphael church in Chole on Saturday. A church servant in the woreda said 43 people were killed in Chole kebele alone and that more than 20 wounded were in hospital, some of them in very serious condition, and that a few of them had died since. The numbers could not be independently verified and they are not the same from one account to another. The Arsi diocese, in a statement shared by Kotet Amharic on X, put the dead at 42 and the wounded at 18, while Ethio Focus, a local outlet in Asella, reported 47 killed and houses burned. Meseret Media said more than 45 people were killed, and that 36 bodies were collected from one location alone.<\/p>\n

The attack hit Birbo and Chole kebeles of Shirka, which was part of Arsi zone under Oromia's earlier administrative map. A resident whose 75-year-old father was among the dead told BBC Amharic that the attackers surrounded them "from four corners" at about 11 o'clock at night in the Ethiopian count, which is about 5 a.m., at a time when many of the men who had been on night guard rounds had gone home to rest. Another resident, who said he got up and fought next to his father, a kebele militia member, said the two sides were never equal. "They fought us with snipers and Bren guns," he said. His father was killed.<\/p>\n

Residents said some of the victims were shot or cut down inside their own houses after the attackers broke the doors, and that others were killed after they ran to a nearby church for safety. Among the dead were elderly people and women, they said, and one resident said children aged five, seven and ten were among at least seven children killed.<\/p>\n

The church servant, who called the attack a "mass slaughter," told BBC Amharic that security forces stationed nearby reached the scene but "did not stop anything." He said Digelu Medhane Alem church was hit with heavy weapons, looted, and its doors pierced. A church source explained why the dead were buried together: there was no way to dig a grave for each one, there was no time, and the attackers were still close and might not let them bury anyone.<\/p>\n

In a video posted on X by @neby_G, a Shirka church official is heard saying, "We kept warning that armed groups were entering the area, but no one listened. They came and massacred the people."<\/p>\n

The Oromia regional government blamed the armed alliance it calls "Tsimdo," the seven-group coalition announced last month to fight the federal Gov't. Hailu Adugna, head of the Oromia Communication Service, said the group's attempt "to divert attention from the heavy losses it suffered in northern Ethiopia by creating ethnic and religious conflict" had failed, according to a statement from the bureau reported by local media. Hailu expressed the region's condolences for the deaths in Chole and Birbo and said action against those responsible would continue. He gave no casualty figure. BBC Amharic said its calls and written questions to the regional communication bureau were not answered.<\/p>\n

The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said it is aware. "We have the information, it is a matter we are following," Meti Atomsa, the commission's senior director for monitoring and investigation, told BBC Amharic, adding that "there is nothing concrete in our hands right now."<\/p>\n

The Arsi diocese of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, in a statement carried by church media on Facebook, said the killing of Christians in Shirka "has been getting worse from time to time." It said Archbishop Abune Elsa'e, head of the Arsi and Jigjiga dioceses, had held repeated talks with officials, and that the problem had been reported "from the lower government offices up to the Ministry of Peace," with "no solution given so far."<\/p>\n

This is the second deadly attack in Shirka in about a week. Between October 12 and 17, residents said, at least six people were killed and at least five abducted in Shirka and Honkolo Wabe woredas, and on the night of Tuesday into Wednesday more than 15 people were killed in Gora Silingo kebele of neighboring Merti woreda, a woreda source told BBC Amharic. In a report issued in July, the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO) said 458 people had been killed and 38 were unaccounted for in Arsi over four years, and that armed groups had targeted Orthodox Christians on the basis of their faith. Muslims in the area have also been attacked in the past.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed earlier blamed the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) for attacks on civilians and religious institutions in the area, and the armed group has denied the accusations. The Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party (EPRP) said in a statement reported by DW Amharic that the silence while innocent blood is spilled again and again in Arsi is a grave question.<\/p>\n

"It is the biggest number of all the attacks so far," the church servant said in his interview with BBC Amharic, adding that many residents have fled and that nobody knows what the next hours will bring.<\/p>\n

Sources<\/h4>\n