At least nine abducted priests and other Christians remained missing in central Ethiopia on Thursday after a church deacon and others were killed by rebels in recent weeks, aid workers and others said.
While Christians in Ethiopia were already subject to persecution, they have seen intensified attacks against them amid the extreme violence of the current conflict between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), International Christian Concern reports.
Christians in western Ethiopia fear for their lives after dozens of believers were reportedly massacred by armed militants.
Ethiopia is in the midst of a full-blown humanitarian crisis as refugees flee to the border with Sudan and up to two million people face starvation while the government wars against a separatist group in the country’s Tigray region, CBN News reports. Among daily reports of mass killings on both sides is the reported massacre of over 700 Orthodox Christians outside their church in Tigray’s city of Aksum earlier this month.
The Europe External Programme with Africa (EEPA) has reported that an estimated 750 people were recently killed by Ethiopian government forces and Amhara militia in an attack on a church in Tigray in northern Ethiopia, Christian Today reports.
At least 500 Christians have been slaughtered, and thousands traumatized and displaced, in the last two months in Ethiopia’s Oromia state, the Christian Post reports. It is believed that those responsible for the recent door-to-door attacks and killings are members of a youth movement of Muslim men from the ethnic Oromo population.
Muslim militants have killed hundreds of Christians, including pregnant women, children, and whole families in Ethiopia’s most populous regional state, aid workers told Worthy News Wednesday.
Christian aid groups, along with pesticide-wielding UN troops, are deploying to eastern Africa to fight a locust swarm that experts say is the worst to hit the region in 70 years and could grow by 500 times between now and June.
Two Ethiopian pastors have been beheaded in Sebeta, near the capital Addis Ababa, in an outburst of violence against Christians at the end of October, reported a Barnabas Fund contact.
During the past two years since a young prime minister has taken over as the new leader of Ethiopia, more than 30 churches have been attacked with more than half of the buildings burned to the ground.
An evangelical Protestant Church in Ethiopia received an eviction letter on May 15th citing noise complaints from local residents after operating peaceably for 10 years, according to World Watch Monitor.
A Pentecostal church in Ethiopia has been ordered to stop meeting in a residential area, in the wake of a mob attack on the church, after which a church member was arrested for illegal activities that incited religious clashes.
An Ethiopian Christian suffered deep wounds to the back of his head when he was attacked while alone in his home by a group of local Muslims with machetes.
Last month, six church committee members from Kilto, Ethiopia, were found guilty of destroying the public’s trust in government officials and spreading hatred.
A Muslim mob in Deder, Ethiopia, has forced a Christian man from his home in order to build a mosque on his land despite court rulings that guaranteed the Christian’s property rights.
A video purportedly made by Islamic State and posted on social media sites on Sunday appeared to show militants shooting and beheading about 30 Ethiopian Christians in Libya.
Heaven’s Light Church in Harare, Ethiopia, was demolished Nov. 28 by order of the Shenkore administrative district that just days before had forcibly removed the church’s sign, according to International Christian Concern.
Ethiopian officials have arbitrarily detained and arrested a Christian evangelist for terrorism and treason, according to International Christian Concern.
International Christian Concern recently reported that two Christian men were arrested in separate incidents in Ethiopia.
More than 500 Muslim students assisted by Muslim police burned down a church in the village of Qoto Baloso, Ethiopia, on Nov. 29.
