THE MASSACRE OF ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS AND THE PERSECUTION OF THE AMHARA PEOPLE IN ETHIOPIA
URGENT APPEAL FOR USCIRF ACTION REGARDING THE MASSACRE OF ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS AND THE PERSECUTION OF THE AMHARA PEOPLE IN ETHIOPIA
The Federation of Amhara in North America (FANA)
6/24/20264 min read
Ref # FANA_2026_ 00022
June 16, 2026
The Honorable Vicky Hartzler
Chair, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)
732 N. Capitol Street, NW, Suite A714
Washington, D.C. 20401
The Honorable Asif Mahmood
Vice Chair, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)
732 N. Capitol Street, NW, Suite A714
Washington, D.C. 20401
RE: URGENT APPEAL FOR USCIRF ACTION REGARDING THE MASSACRE OF ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS AND THE PERSECUTION OF THE AMHARA PEOPLE IN ETHIOPIA
Dear Chair Hartzler and Vice Chair Mahmood,
The Federation of Amhara in North America (FANA) writes to you with profound urgency and moral gravity. We represent millions of Ethiopians of Amhara heritage in the diaspora who are watching, with anguish and desperation, as their families, communities, and ancient faith are systematically targeted, silenced, and destroyed inside Ethiopia. We call upon the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) — a body whose mandate speaks directly to this crisis — to act with the decisiveness this moment demands.
I. THE ARSI MASSACRE: A NEW ATROCITY IN A PATTERN OF ANTI-CHRISTIAN VIOLENCE
Between May 31 and June 3, 2026, Oromo Liberation Army militants carried out coordinated and devastating attacks against Amhara communities and followers of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (EOTC) across multiple kebeles — including Teleta-Gabriel, Kuftena, Medhanealem, and Bayo Kebele — in Aseko Woreda, East Arsi Zone, Oromia Region of Ethiopia. The scale and deliberate nature of this violence represent not random communal conflict but a targeted campaign against a specific religious and ethnic community:
• At least 53 civilians were killed in the attacks.
• More than 280 people remain missing, their whereabouts unknown.
• 234 homes were burned or destroyed.
• Thousands of residents were forcibly displaced, many fleeing toward Sunte and surrounding areas.
• Large quantities of civilian property and livestock were systematically looted.
• The historic 101-year-old St. Gabriel Church in Teleta-Chefa — an irreplaceable site of religious and cultural heritage — was deliberately burned to the ground.
• Additional church structures belonging to Kara-Kufta and Medhanealem church compounds were also destroyed.
Sources on the ground further allege that Ethiopian federal and regional security forces failed to intervene effectively during the attacks and, in documented instances, actively prevented local civilian protection volunteers from reaching affected communities.
His Holiness Patriarch Abune Mathias of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church issued an emergency statement on June 3, 2026, expressing grief over what he described as "horrific and shocking attacks" against believers and churches in Aseko, Shirka, Mugito, Bele, and Mendida.
He warned government officials directly: "History will judge you above all by the price you are willing to pay to safeguard the security of citizens." Addressing the repeated nature of the violence, the Patriarch asked the question now burning in the hearts of millions: "The recurring injustice and oppression witnessed in the land of Arsi has created in all of our hearts a painful and sorrowful question: Until when?"
II. THIS IS NOT AN ISOLATED INCIDENT: A DOCUMENTED PATTERN OF ANTICHRISTIAN AND
ANTI-AMHARA VIOLENCE IN ETHIOPIA
The Aseko Woreda massacre is the latest in an unrelenting and geographically expanding pattern of targeted violence against Orthodox Christians and Amhara people:
• February–March 2026, East Arsi Zone: Oromo Liberation Army militants killed more than 30 people across Shirka and Merti Woredas over multiple days. In Jawi Wachu Kebele, 19–21 people were shot dead in a single afternoon; elderly men and women were thrown alive into burning homes. No federal or regional officials issued a public statement.
• April 17, 2026, South Gonder Zone, Amhara Region: State soldiers entered the courtyard of Debre Birhan Sali Baleegziabher Church in Lay Gayint Woreda, forced church workers to the ground, and opened fire, killing seven people — including deacons and a religious teacher (Mergetta) — according to eyewitnesses who spoke to BBC Amharic. Three others were dragged from their homes and killed. The church sustained heavy artillery damage. Survivors described being certain they would die. Officials in Lay Gayint Woreda and South Gonder Zone refused to comment.
• Late 2025, East Arsi Zone: Unidentified militants killed 25 people — including children — in Guna, Merti, Shirka, and Holonqo Wabe Woredas, according to an Amhara Association of America (AAA) investigation.
In every instance, government accountability has been absent. No perpetrators have been prosecuted. State media has maintained silence. The Patriarch's agonized question — "Until when?" — has received no answer from Addis Ababa.
III. THE BROADER CONTEXT: THE ABIY AHMED REGIME'S GENOCIDAL WAR AGAINST THE AMHARA PEOPLE
These attacks against Orthodox Christians in Oromia do not occur in a vacuum. They are inseparable from the Abiy Ahmed regime's declared and ongoing military campaign against the Amhara people that began in April 2023 — a campaign characterized by mass atrocities, systematic sexual violence, economic strangulation, and the deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure. Key documented facts include:
• Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and other human rights organizations have documented massacres of Amhara civilians by federal forces and non-state actors across Merawi, Kobo, Finote Selam, and dozens of other communities, with civilian death tolls in the thousands.
• A campaign of mass rape and sexual violence against Amhara women and girls by Ethiopian federal forces, as documented by BBC investigative reporting. BBC collected data from 43 health facilities in Amhara, finding 2,697 reports of rape between July 2023 and May 2025. Children under 18 accounted for 45% of cases, and a senior health expert described victims reaching facilities as "only the tip of the iceberg."
• 4.4 million children in the Amhara Region have been out of school for more than three consecutive years due to the military campaign, according to UNICEF — a deliberate assault on an entire generation.
• Drone strikes on civilian markets, farms, and residential areas, killing thousands of non-combatants.
• The systematic imprisonment of Amhara journalists, politicians, and human rights defenders — silencing every domestic accountability mechanism — while a sham parliamentary election was held in June 2026, from which Amhara political actors were excluded.
IV. USCIRF'S MANDATE AND OUR URGENT REQUESTS
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church — among the oldest Christian institutions in the world — and its millions of faithful are under coordinated assault. FANA respectfully but urgently calls upon USCIRF to take the following actions:
• Open a Fact-Finding Mission on the persecution of Orthodox Christians and the Amhara people in Ethiopia. FANA will facilitate direct testimony from survivors, religious leaders, and community witnesses.
• Recommend Ethiopia for Country of Particular Concern (CPC) Designation under IRFA. The documented pattern of state-enabled religious persecution — repeated church burnings, mass killings of believers, and total governmental impunity — fully meets the CPC threshold.
• Call for a Congressional Hearing on Ethiopia to examine U.S. policy and diplomatic and security assistance to Addis Ababa in light of these ongoing atrocities.
• Recommend Targeted Sanctions under the Magnitsky Act against Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali and senior regime officials responsible for the military campaign, the enabling of anti-Christian violence, and the persecution of political and religious dissidents.
The silence of the international community has become its own moral injury. Every day without action is another day in which Orthodox Christians are massacred in Arsi, children remain displaced from schools in the Amhara Region, and defenders of truth languish in prison. The Patriarch has asked: "Until when?" We ask USCIRF to help provide an answer.
We remain available to brief Commissioners, provide supporting documentation, and facilitate direct contact with survivors and religious leaders at any time.
Respectfully submitted,
Federation of Amhara in North America (FANA)
info@fana.org | www.fanaAmhara.org