The journalists’ cameras were taken by the cops as they pursued the employees wearing black clothing with force. Some of those with wounds are reportedly in life-threatening situations. His excellence
in an interview with Anchor Media, Abune Petros, Secretary of the Holy Synod, acknowledged that more than thirty members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church have been slaughtered in Shashemene.
On Saturday, as the group that the Ethiopian Church excommunicated attempted to break into the church unlawfully, security personnel in the Oromia region opened fire on worshippers who were making their way to St. Michael Church to defend the church. Initially, three people died and dozens were injured.
The regional police persecution resumed on Sunday and many more were reportedly slain.
Along with the murders, the security forces of the neighboring governments have been harassing the heads of various dioceses in Ethiopia’s Oromo region severely. There had been numerous reported arrests.
In less than a day, two archbishops from the Jima and Arsi Dioceses were detained by Oromian authorities and returned to Addis Abeba.
Church-related sources claim that large numbers of church choirs have been imprisoned in the towns surrounding Addis Abeba. As the Oromo regional state cracks down on supporters of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church who oppose those who unlawfully elected 26 bishops in what looks to be an effort to establish an ethnic Oromo patriarchate, tension is building in many sections of the region.
The Ministry of Communication Services of Abiy Ahmed’s federal government issued a statement, although it did not denounce the murder in Shashemene. Instead, the federal administration claimed that there was dissension inside the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church in an effort to legitimize the excommunicated group that is receiving support from the Oromo regional authority.
