Armed attacks in Ethiopia's Oromia kill more than 40, church says over 60

Attacks on Shirka villages

Armed men attacked several villages in Oromia, Ethiopia's most populous region with about 40 million people, on Saturday, 24 October. Residents and a religious official told Agence France-Presse that the gunmen struck an Orthodox church and the houses around it in Shirka district, roughly 270 kilometres south of Addis Ababa. The Holy Synod of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church said 20 houses were burnt to the ground, but it did not say who was responsible. Security forces reached the scene, yet a church official said they could not stop the assault on three areas of the district. Many residents have since fled.

Death toll and burials

Figures differ by source. A resident told AFP the total was 51 people, while other interviewees put the number of dead above 40 and said the bodies were buried in mass graves. Reporting published on Monday, 26 October gave a figure of more than 60 killed, citing the Orthodox Church. An eyewitness who spoke to BBC Amharic said five of the dead were children. None of these figures has been independently verified.

Church and residents' accounts

A resident described an ambush and said families had no warning before they were surrounded from all four directions. A church official called the assaults a massacre. The church said attacks on Christians had been rising and that it had raised insecurity concerns repeatedly with authorities at different levels of government, with no solution found so far. In a statement posted on Facebook, the church said:

“Such actions undermine the country's values of mutual respect and peaceful coexistence.”

Armed groups and the government response

An unnamed local official blamed the attacks on the Alliance for Survival, a newly formed rebel coalition that includes the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA). The OLA has not publicly commented and has denied carrying out earlier attacks of this kind. Addis Ababa classifies the OLA as a terrorist organisation. Regional authorities have pledged to pursue the perpetrators. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has previously said that violence against civilians and religious institutions forms part of a plan to destabilise the country. The OLA rejects those allegations and says it is fighting for greater rights for the Oromo people.

Rights monitors' figures and the wider conflict

The Ethiopian Human Rights Council, a non-governmental organisation, reported in July 2026 that 458 people had been killed in attacks in the area over the four years before that. The attack on 24 October ranks among the deadliest in that span. The council said armed groups had repeatedly targeted local communities, especially followers of the Orthodox Church, in attacks it considered religiously motivated. Earlier reports also documented attacks on Muslims in the area, and residents interviewed by the BBC on several occasions have described the violence as both ethnic and religious. The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said it is monitoring the situation and examining the details, without providing further information.