slaughter of 25 Orthodox Christians in October 2025, the killing continues unchecked, uninvestigated, and largely ignored. The most vulnerable children, women, and the elderly are paying the highest price for a crime they did not commit: their faith and identity.
Little Tamrat, just four years old, was shot three times. Doctors now face the unbearable decision to amputate his leg to save his life. Sentayehu, only eight, lies motionless in a hospital bed after surviving both gunfire and a brutal machete blow to the head. These are not statistics. These are children whose lives have been shattered before they had a chance to begin.
Families are fleeing in terror, abandoning their homes, their livelihoods, and their sacred church places that once offered refuge, prayer, and community. What remains are burned houses, emptied villages, mass graves, and a deepening wound that threatens to tear the social fabric of the region beyond repair.
On November 3, 2025, six more innocent lives were taken in Abomsa Village. Yet instead of accountability, the world witnessed denial. The Zone Administrator, Ibrahim Kedir, publicly dismissed the massacre in an interview with BBC Amharic, denying the pain, the bodies, and the truth. Denial does not erase bloodshed. Silence does not absolve responsibility.
This is not an isolated incident. It is a pattern. And history has taught us, painfully and repeatedly, that when violence against a targeted community is met with indifference, denial, or political convenience, it escalates.
A Call to Action
We therefore call upon the international community, human rights organizations, civic and diplomatic institutions, and global councils of churches to act not tomorrow, not after another burial, but now.
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To the United Nations, African Union, and international human rights bodies:
Launch an independent, transparent investigation into the killings in Eastern Arsi and surrounding areas. Demand accountability from regional and federal authorities. Protect civilians under international humanitarian law. -
To governments and diplomatic missions:
Use your political and economic leverage to press for immediate protection of vulnerable communities, the disarmament of perpetrators, and justice for the victims. Neutrality in the face of mass violence is not neutrality; it is complicity. -
To the global councils of churches and faith-based institutions:
Do not remain silent while fellow Christians are slaughtered in their homes and sanctuaries. Raise your voices, mobilize advocacy, send fact-finding missions, and stand publicly with the persecuted. Faith that does not defend life is empty. -
To international media and civil society organizations:
Tell these stories. Name the victims. Challenge denial. The truth must not be buried alongside the dead.
The people of Eastern Arsi are not asking for sympathy alone. They are asking for justice, protection, and recognition of their humanity. Every day of silence costs more lives. Every act of denial fuels further violence.
The bloodshed must stop. The truth must be acknowledged. And justice must be pursued relentlessly, collectively, and now.
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