At least 60 people have been killed in two attacks in Ethiopia's Oromia region in recent days, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church said, according to Reuters on Tuesday, October 27, 2026.
Religious authorities said all the victims were Christians but
provided no further details about those responsible for the attacks.
Oromia is Ethiopia's largest region, with a population of around
40 million. It has long faced an insurgency and ethnic tensions among its
Muslim, Protestant and Orthodox Christian communities, tensions increasingly
exploited by armed groups.
In a statement issued on Monday, the Holy Synod of the Ethiopian
Orthodox Tewahedo Church said 14 worshippers were killed in Merti district on
20 October and another 46 in Sherka district on 24 October.
The Church also said more than 20 homes were set on fire and
over 20 people were hospitalised with serious injuries, according to Reuters.
Reacting to the 24 October attack, the Armed Conflict Location
& Event Data Project (ACLED) told AFP that the violence was "believed
to be religiously motivated and to have targeted Orthodox Christians",
citing the reported looting of an Orthodox church.
ACLED said attacks against Orthodox Christians in the region had
increased since February 2023, with the violence intensifying over the past
year.
The possible involvement of the Oromo Liberation Front, the main
insurgent group operating in Oromia, has not been established.
The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, a publicly funded but
administratively independent institution, told AFP it was "monitoring the
situation" and "examining the details".
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