Gunmen killed at least 34 Christians on Thursday, November 5, in Endato village, in the Robe district of East Arsi Zone, Oromia region, Ethiopia. Local accounts put the number of dead from the latest assault at no fewer than 34, and community members warned that the figure could climb as families searched for the missing.
The killing brings the death toll from attacks on worshippers in the region to at least 94 in less than three weeks. Church leaders said earlier assaults on October 20 and October 24, in the Merti and Shirka districts, left at least 60 people dead. It was not immediately clear who carried out Thursday's attack.
The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission attributed the October attacks to the Oromo Liberation Army, an armed group fighting the government. A conflict-monitoring group told a wire service that the October 24 attack appeared religiously motivated and aimed at Orthodox Christians. The victims have included both ethnic Amhara and ethnic Oromo believers, according to a global council of churches. Federal authorities launched a security operation after the October killings and arrested nearly 70 suspects.
The men and women who died were farmers, mothers, fathers, and neighbors. Many belonged to an ancient Christian community that has worshipped in that land for some seventeen centuries. They were not soldiers. They were not politicians. The church says they were killed because of the name they carry.
What a grave in a far village says to the rest of us
Ninety-four is a number. Pause over it, my friend, and let it become ninety-four names, ninety-four kitchens with an empty chair. Most Americans will never hear the name Endato. The newspapers here will give it a few lines, if that. That silence is its own kind of sorrow.
The Lord Jesus never promised His people an easy road. He promised His presence on a hard one. He told His disciples plainly that the world hated Him first, and that servants are not greater than their Master. Across much of Africa and Asia today, that is not a sermon illustration. It is Thursday morning.
"Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:10)
Notice what He does not say. He does not say the killers are right, or that the dead were foolish, or that justice does not matter. Governments hold the sword for a reason, and the Scripture says rulers are God's ministers to punish evildoers. Ethiopia's authorities owe these villages protection and a fair accounting, and honest leaders everywhere should press for it. Here at home, our own government is right to keep the plight of persecuted Christians before the world instead of looking the other way.
But the verse reaches past the courtroom. It tells us where the martyr is standing in the end. Not in a mass grave, but in a kingdom. The man cut down in a village road is not forgotten by heaven.
The Psalmist wrote, "Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints." (Psalm 116:15) Precious. Not overlooked, not wasted. And to every believer who wonders whether he would hold fast under that kind of pressure, the risen Christ gave this word: "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." (Revelation 2:10)
The question underneath
There is a question these killings press on every comfortable heart. What is your faith worth to you? Many in this country have never paid a price for it beyond an awkward silence at the office. Yet the Christians of Oromia were gathered in their own homes and villages, and they paid with everything.
The gospel does not offer a safe life. It offers a certain one. Christ died for sinners, was buried, and rose again on the third day, and whoever believes on Him has everlasting life. That promise does not depend on a border, a government, or a calm week. It held in the catacombs of Rome, and it holds on the red earth of East Arsi.
So hold your Bible a little tighter. Remember the persecuted by name where you can find names. Speak for them when the nation's attention drifts. And if you have never put your trust in the Savior these believers died confessing, there is no better hour than this one.