February 23, 2024
borkena
“The accident that happened in Zequala is very dangerous. Fathers who do not know anything else except for prayer and ascetic [life] …fathers who can not be linked to any wrongdoing had been brutally executed, killed.” His Holiness Abune Mathias said in reaction to the massacre of four monks.
“This calls for a devoted Eucharistic Prayer for our country. It is an act that is worrisome that is committed,… it is very very saddening. Let us all pray to our God to remove this dangerous thing from our country” he added.
The Ethiopian church has declared prayer in reaction to the tragic incident at Zequala Monastery which is within 50 kilometers from the capital Addis Ababa.
This week, four monks were taken from Zequala Monastery and killed by the radical ethnic oromo nationalist group.
Members of the monastic community at Zequala have refused to eat for several days now – according to Abune Abraham – demanding a dignified (apparently in the spiritual sense of the term) burial of the monks who have been massacred by radical ethnic Oromo armed group- that calls itself Oromo Liberation Army (OLA). The Oromia regional government on Friday confirmed the killing. Ethiopia’s Federal government has not yet remarked on the development. Earlier this week, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed made claims that “no one has done what he has done to the Ethiopian church.” He said so during a meeting with “representatives from the Amhara region of Ethiopia.”The group Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) is believed to have a clandestine link with government authorities and has been targeting the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (EOTC) in the Oromia region. Hundreds of thousands of Orthodox followers have been killed in the Oromia region over the past five years and many churches have been burned. Asked why the OLA group is taking action, members of the monastic community have revealed that the armed group wants the monastic community to leave the “Oromia region.” In addition to extensive massacre of civilians, the group is linked to ransom kidnapping which has become prevalent in the Oromia region of Ethiopia.