Gunmen killed at least 34 Orthodox Christians in Endato village in Ethiopia’s East Arsi Zone on Thursday, November 5. It is the third mass killing of Orthodox Christians in the zone in 16 days, and the combined toll from the three attacks now stands at no fewer than 94. No group has claimed Thursday’s attack. The attack came three days after the regional government announced 73 arrests in connection with the October killings.
What Happened
Around 11 AM local time on Thursday, November 5, armed attackers hit Endato Kebele in Robe Woreda, in the East Arsi Zone of Ethiopia’s Oromia Region. A kebele is the smallest administrative unit in Ethiopia, roughly the size of a village, and a woreda is a district. The attackers targeted Orthodox Christian residents. Several people were wounded, and shops and homes were burned or damaged. The Ethiopian outlet Meseret Media reported that security personnel who tried to restore order were also caught in the violence.
The bodies of 34 victims were gathered at Endato Debre Mitmaq St. Mary Church. The community warns the toll may rise as recovery continues. The names of the dead have not been released in the reporting available to us. Eyewitnesses say the attackers blocked roads into the area and cut off access to medical care. That claim has not been independently confirmed.
The October Attacks
Thursday’s killings follow two mass attacks in October. On October 20, attackers killed 14 people in Gora Silingo, Angada Kebele, in Merti Woreda. Four days later, on October 24, attackers killed 46 people in the villages of Tereta, Chole and Birbo in Shirka Woreda. Those figures come from the Holy Synod of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, which reported more than 20 people seriously wounded and about 20 homes burned. At least five of the dead were children.
Residents of Shirka told the Ethiopian newspaper Addis Standard that the October 24 attackers went house to house and used heavy weapons. Residents also said local authorities had been warned of a possible attack before October 24 and did not stop it. That claim has not been independently verified. Adding Thursday’s 34 dead, open-source reporting puts the combined toll at no fewer than 94 Orthodox Christians killed in less than three weeks.
Who Is Responsible
No group has claimed the November 5 attack, and no one has been publicly named. For the October attacks, the Oromia regional government blamed the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), an armed group that has fought the Ethiopian federal government for years. The government refers to the group as “Shane.” On Wednesday, November 4, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC), a publicly funded body that operates independently of the government, also attributed the October attacks to the OLA.
The OLA has denied attacking civilians in past incidents and had not publicly responded on the October attacks at the time of the most recent reporting. The EHRC finding covers the October killings only. It does not by itself establish who carried out Thursday’s attack in Endato.
Arsi Zone is majority Muslim, and Orthodox Christians there are a minority living among Muslim and Protestant communities. The people being killed in these attacks are almost entirely Orthodox Christians, and many are ethnic Amhara. Open Doors reports that the attacks in the zone have primarily targeted Orthodox Christians and Orthodox churches, and that only the Orthodox community there reported incidents of this kind during the same period. In the February 26 attack, local sources said the gunmen entered a church shouting religious chants before opening fire on the people inside. The OLA is an ethnic Oromo nationalist group that recruits from both Muslim and Christian Oromo, and no Islamist group has claimed or been blamed for the Arsi attacks. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church describes the attacks as religiously motivated and aimed at its members. The Ethiopian Inter-Religious Council, a body of Christian and Muslim leaders, has said the attacks are not driven by religion or ethnicity.
Arrests and Government Response
The Oromia regional government announced that 73 people had been detained in connection with the October 24 attack in Shirka. The government has not said whether any of them have been charged or what evidence links them to the killings. Residents told Addis Standard that some of the people detained had buried victims, attended funerals, or helped carry and treat the wounded. Addis Standard could not verify the full number of detainees or the circumstances of each arrest.
The Longer Pattern
East Arsi has seen repeated killings of Orthodox Christians for years. In July 2026, the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO), a private rights group, reported that at least 432 civilians and four local militia members had been killed in targeted attacks across East Arsi since 2021, with Orthodox Christian communities hit hardest. EHRCO counted 47 of those deaths in Robe district, where Endato sits, along with 156 people abducted there. More than 14,000 people have been forced from their homes across the zone.
The attacks this year did not start in October. On February 26, attackers stormed a market in East Arsi and killed 20 Orthodox Christians and a Muslim guard, and local sources reported a priest was among those killed inside a church. Between May 30 and June 1, attacks in Aseko Woreda killed civilians, drove hundreds of residents into the forest, and burned the 101-year-old Telata St. Gabriel Church to the ground.
What It Means for Church Safety Teams
An armed group raiding villages is a long way from the threat most American churches face, and the pattern in East Arsi still applies to any church safety team. The attacks came in waves, with the third landing while families were still burying the dead from the first two. In Shirka, the people who showed up to bury victims and carry the wounded ended up exposed again. In Endato, eyewitnesses say blocked roads kept medical help from reaching the wounded. A church that has had one incident, or is holding a funeral or memorial after one, is at higher risk of a second, and the safety team is on its own until police and medics arrive.
Ethiopian Orthodox parishes in the United States may hold memorial services and vigils for the victims in the coming weeks. Those gatherings will draw larger crowds than a normal service, and their safety teams should staff them at the level of their largest Sunday. A direct physical threat to American churches from the fighting in East Arsi is unlikely.
What Your Safety Team Can Do
Walk the outside of the building before every service. Check the parking lot, every exterior door, landscaping, dumpster and trash areas, and note anything that was not there last week.
Get a named contact at your local police department. Meet that officer or supervisor in person, put the direct phone number in every team leader’s phone, and give the department a copy of your floor plan.
Measure your police and fire response times. Ask your police and fire departments for average response times to your address on a Sunday morning and on a weeknight, write them in your team’s emergency plan, and plan to hold the building until they arrive.
Keep full coverage up after any incident or credible threat. Do not pull people off posts to handle the first scene. Staff funerals, memorial services and vigils that follow an incident at the same level as your largest Sunday service.
Plan for blocked exits. Show ushers and greeters a primary and a secondary exit for every room, and walk both routes with them before the next service.
Stage bleeding control kits and train the people who will use them. Put tourniquets and hemostatic gauze where your team can reach them in under a minute, and get your team through a bleeding control class.
Confirm casualty numbers and claims before you share them. Pass along figures from an identified source, and correct them when the source updates.
What the Bible Says
“Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.” (Hebrews 13:3, English Standard Version (ESV))
The writer of Hebrews was speaking to Christians who had already been through persecution themselves. Earlier in the letter he reminds them that they had been publicly exposed to reproach and had their property seized, and that they stood beside others who were treated the same way. In chapter 13 he tells them to keep remembering the ones still suffering, and he gives the reason: “since you also are in the body.” The believers in Endato, Merti and Shirka are part of the same body we are. They worship in a different tradition and a language most of us do not speak, and that does not change the command. Remembering them is a duty Scripture gives the church, and it starts with knowing what happened to them and praying for them by name when their names are released.
“If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.” (1 Corinthians 12:26, ESV)
Paul wrote this to a church that was divided and competitive, with members who thought some parts of the body mattered more than others. His answer was that the body cannot work that way. When one part is hurt, the whole body feels it. A village in Ethiopia that buries its dead at St. Mary Church for the third time in three weeks is part of our body, and we should feel it. For a church safety team, that suffering also carries information. The families in East Arsi have learned at great cost how attacks come in waves and how help gets cut off, and our teams should learn the same lesson and prepare our own congregations.
Jesus warned His disciples in Matthew 24:42-44 that a homeowner who knew when the thief was coming would stay awake and keep his house from being broken into, and He told them to stay ready because they did not know the hour. The people of Endato had no warning on Thursday morning, and their loss is a warning to every church safety team that reads this article. For our teams, staying ready means walking the building before every service, knowing our response times by measurement, and training our people. Pray for the families in Endato, for the wounded, for the Orthodox Christians of East Arsi, and for those burying their dead again.
Details may change as reporting develops. Leave a comment with what your team is doing to staff funerals and memorial services after an incident, and share this article with your pastor and your safety team leader. Paid subscribers get the Analyst’s Notes on this attack below.
Stay safe,
Keith Graves
For Paid Subscribers
✅ Analyst’s Notes: how the East Arsi attacks are escalating, how far to trust each source, and the dates to watch
