Christians, from a wide span of ethnic groups, have been killed in coordinated attacks which included sickening violence and desecration of the dead bodies.
The victims had been singled out to be murdered by people who carried lists of Christians and who went from door to door seeking out their victims. Police are reported to have stood by and watched.
The attackers were members of Qeerroo, a youth movement of traditionally Muslim Oromo men.
Oromo Christians were targeted if they were recognised to be Christians. One Oromo Christian, Solomon Belayineh, was challenged by the attackers to tear off the thread around his neck, a thread worn by many Ethiopian Christians as a sign of their baptism. He refused to deny his faith in this way and was beheaded. His widow Yenenesh said: ‘The attackers said that it is only s/he who prostrates with us before Allah for prayer who is considered an Oromo.’
Desecrating the dead
In Bale Agarfa, Christians were horrified at the death of their fellow believer Aschalew Ababu whose eyes were gouged out and his headless body left in the open. No one was allowed to retrieve the corpse until wild animals had eaten most of it. But, also in Bale Agarfa, some Christian lives were saved by the brave efforts of Muslims who protected them.
In Gedeb Assasa, the victims included an elderly Christian couple, Teferi (87) and his wife Sinqinesh, who were beaten to death in their home, then their bodies were mutilated and dragged through the streets.
A Derra Christian, Wegene Girma, described how the attackers played with the corpses of the Christians they had killed, ‘dancing and singing, carrying the chopped or hacked body parts of those they slaughtered’.
