ACLED has recorded an increase in attacks against Orthodox Christians in the region since February 2023, with the violence escalating last year. (AFP pic)ADDIS ABABA: More than 40 people were killed in an attack on Orthodox Christian churches and homes in Ethiopia's central state of Oromia on Saturday, residents and a conflict monitor told AFP on Monday.
Oromia, Ethiopia's largest state with some 40 million people, has faced a long-running insurgency and ethnic tensions between its Muslim, Protestant and Orthodox communities, which have been increasingly exploited by armed groups.
Local residents and the ACLED conflict monitor told AFP that at least 43 people were killed and 18 wounded when an unidentified armed group attacked villages in the Shirka district of Oromia, around 270km south of the capital, Addis Ababa.
