Ethiopia: Attack with two dead in a church

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Four other people were seriously injured in the attack in Sasemene

Two youths were killed today in an attack on an Ethiopian Orthodox Church in the south Ethiopiaas announced by the Tewahedo Press Center (TMC), a journalistic organ belonging to this doctrine.

According to the TMC, four other people were seriously injured in the attack in Sasemene, Oromia region. Abune Henko, the archbishop of the Diocese of Addis Ababa, condemned the attack as “brazen and heartbreaking”.

The TMC blamed security forces for the attack in the town, which is about 250 kilometers south of the capital.

It is currently impossible to verify this information from independent sources.

The archbishop called on the authorities of Oromia, Ethiopia’s largest region, to stop “the persecution” of Orthodox Christians.

In her bosom Tewahedo Ethiopian Orthodox Church, as it is officially called, has been under tension since last month “rebel” bishops formed their own Synod in the Oromia region. The unity of this Church, one of the oldest in the world, is threatened.

The Tewahedo Church, headed for a decade by Patriarch Abune Matthew, declared the schism illegal and excommunicated the bishops who participated in it. The Church also accuses Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government of meddling in its internal affairs and issuing statements de facto recognizing this “illegal group.”

Abiy, who is from Oromia, this week called on the bishops to start a dialogue and said both sides have “their own truth”.

Breakaway priests accuse the Church of linguistic and cultural discrimination because it does not address the Oromo (Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, which makes up nearly 34% of the country’s population) in their own language – accusations the Patriarchate rejects.

RES-EMP

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