Latest: 34 More Orthodox Christians Killed in Ethiopia as Oromia Toll Hits 94

Gunmen killed at least 34 Ethiopian Orthodox Christians on Thursday, 5 November 2026, in Endato village in Robe district of Ethiopia's Oromia region. The attack brought the reported death toll from three attacks on worshippers in less than three weeks to at least 94, according to local media and church authorities. Several other people were injured and property was damaged in the assault, and security personnel trying to restore order were also caught in the violence.

The latest killings followed two attacks in October in the same region. On 20 October, gunmen killed 14 Orthodox Christians in Merti district. Four days later, another attack in neighbouring Shirka district killed 46 more, according to the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church.

The church's Holy Synod condemned those killings on 26 October and called for urgent protection for worshippers.

That is how the number reached 94: 14, then 46, then 34. Seventeen days, three villages, and a death toll that kept climbing while the world looked somewhere else.

The figures are reported, not independently verified, and residents interviewed after the latest attack gave slightly different counts. One resident told Addis Standard that 35 people were buried at the church on the Thursday afternoon. Another said 36 Orthodox Christians and three Muslims had been buried at seperate locations, with one more victim dying later after being referred for medical treatment.

The same report said around 25 of those killed were members of the local kebele militia, while the others were civilians.

What is not in dispute is that the violence struck around St. Mary Church in Endato, and that families in the village buried their dead the same day. Independent investigators verified and geolocated footage showing a mass burial site near St.

Rufael's Orthodox Church in Chole, after the earlier attacks.

The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission attributed the October attacks to the Oromo Liberation Army, an armed group active in the region. Authorities later said they had arrested nearly 70 suspects in connection with the October violence. Responsibility for the 5 November killings has not been conclusively established.

When a church becomes a burial ground in a single afternoon, grief stops being a private matter and becomes the whole village's story. Yet the people of Endato buried their dead beside their church, in the same ground where they worship. Faith, for them, is not something they carry to a safe place.

It is the place itself, and they refuse to leave it.

Ethiopia Oromia Attacks: What Happened in Merti, Shirka and Endato

The three attacks unfolded across the Arsi area of Oromia, a region that has endured years of armed conflict involving government forces, the Oromo Liberation Army and other armed groups. Our earlier report on the October violence put the toll at 60 after the first two attacks, as reported in 60 Christians Killed in Ethiopia Oromia Attacks Today Latest News.

The first attack, on 20 October, struck Merti district and killed 14 Orthodox Christians. The second, on 24 October, hit Shirka district, where the church says 46 were killed and more than 20 homes were burned. The third, on 5 November, struck Endato village in Robe district, where gunmen attacked several locations including security positions and the area around St.

Mary Church.

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is one of the country's largest religious institutions, with more than 30 million followers. Its Holy Synod has now condemned the killings twice over and asked the goverment for protection and justice, but the attacks have continued.

The pattern is grimly familiar across Africa this year. In Kenya, Al-Shabab gunmen killed five Christian road workers in an ambush in Mandera, as reported in Al-Shabab Kills 5 Christian Road Workers in Mandera Kenya Ambush. In Nigeria, gunmen struck two villages in Plateau State and killed five Christians, as reported in Latest: 5 Christians Killed in Nigeria Plateau Attacks as Gunmen Strike Two Villages.

Open Doors' 2026 World Watch List recorded 4,849 Christians killed worldwide for their faith between October 2024 and September 2025. Of those, 3,490, or 72 percent, were Nigerians. Ethiopia's toll is smaller than Nigeria's, but the speed of it, 94 lives in 17 days, is what has alarmed church leaders.

Why the Ethiopia Church Attacks Keep Happening in Oromia

Oromia's violence has many drivers, and religion is tangled up in all of them. Armed groups fight the government, communities fight over land, and churches sit in the middle of it because they are where people gather. When gunmen want to terrorise a village, the church is the easiest target and the loudest message.

That is why the Holy Synod's appeal matters. It is not only asking for soldiers and arrests. It is asking for the state to treat the protection of worshippers as a duty, not a favour, and for the killers to face justice in court rather than disappearing back into the hills.

The arrests of nearly 70 suspects after the October attacks suggest the authorities are acting. But arrests after the fact do not bring back the dead, and they do not answer the question families in Endato are asking now: who will protect the next village, and the one after that?

In Washington, lawmakers are preparing a hearing on the persecution of Christians in Nigeria, as reported in US House to Hold Hearing on Nigeria Christian Persecution Tomorrow. The hearing is about Nigeria, but the numbers from Ethiopia belong in the same conversation.

A church that loses 94 members in 17 days is not facing isolated crime. It is facing a campaign.

For now, the people of Oromia keep doing what they have always done. They gather, they pray, they bury their dead beside the church, and they come back on Sunday. The gunmen can count the dead.

They cannot count the faith that brings the living back through the church door.