The U.S. Should not Ignore the Christians Genocide in Ethiopia
By Robert Wilkie
Former U.S. Veterans Affairs Secretary
The world said “Never again” after Rwanda, yet we’re watching in silence as ancient Christianity is erased in Ethiopia. America risks its soul and security by doing nothing.
In northern Ethiopia’s Tigray region, more than 1 million people have been slaughtered since 2020. Women and children are starved to death. Entire villages have been erased. Soldiers have told rape victims, “A Tigray womb should never give birth.” That statement alone should remove any doubt about what this is. It is not a civil conflict. It is genocide: a state-sponsored attempt to destroy a Christian people and their culture.
Tigray is not a footnote in history. It is the cradle of African Christianity, the land of the Queen of Sheba, the Kingdom of Axum and the Ark of the Covenant. Its rock-hewn churches, older than many European cathedrals, are among the holiest sites in the world. Today, those sanctuaries lie in ruins, deliberately shelled by Ethiopian and Eritrean forces. Priests and worshippers have been executed, and ancient manuscripts and crosses, stolen from monasteries, have been surfacing on online marketplaces.
If we lose Ethiopia, we lose one of Christianity’s oldest strongholds and a vital partner for the West in a region already teetering between tyranny and terrorism. This is not just a moral catastrophe; it is a strategic one as well. Ethiopia is situated on the Horn of Africa, a region that borders the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait, through which 12% of global trade passes. Whoever controls this corridor controls the arteries of global commerce and energy. Today, that control is slipping off to a dangerous coalition of adversaries.
China, Iran, Russia and other countries have armed and financed Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s regime, using drones and munitions to carry out the campaign against Tigray. Iran, through a formal defense pact signed earlier this year, now has an operational foothold in the Horn of Africa, within striking distance of global shipping lanes and Israel’s southern flank. China, meanwhile, continues its Belt and Road Initiative encirclement of East Africa, Koering ports and mineral routes critical to its military and economic dominance.
His alignment of autocratic powers represents a new “Islamo-Marxist axis” that threatens regional stability and the broader interests of the United States and its allies. By refusing to acknowledge the true nature of the Tigray crisis, we embolden those who perceive Western hesitation as a sign of weakness.
The World Council of Churches condemns the recent killings, kidnappings, and persecution of Orthodox Christians by Oromo extremists and Islamists in the Arsi District of the Oromia Region, Ethiopia. https://t.co/jKyG1bEZKl
9 more Orthodox Christians were killed yesterday in Arsi Oromia Ethiopia. This brings the total number of deaths this month alone to 49. Since the end of 2017 E.C., 140 Orthodox Christians have been killed in Arsi.
#Orthodoxunderattack#Ethiopia
In Jeju district, the government held discussions without including a single representative of the Orthodox Christians. The government is still complicit in the shedding of Orthodox blood.
#Orthodoxunderattack#Arsi#Oromia#Ethiopia
9 more Orthodox Christians were killed yesterday in Arsi Oromia Ethiopia. This brings the total number of deaths this month alone to 49. Since the end of 2017 E.C., 140 Orthodox Christians have been killed in Arsi.
#Orthodoxunderattack#Ethiopia
At least five members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church were killed on Monday in a new attack in Merti district, located in Ethiopia’s Arsi Zone of the Oromia region, local sources confirmed.
The victims were reportedly working on teff farms when they were ambushed by armed men believed to be linked to the same group responsible for a mass killing last week. Among the dead were a husband, wife, and a neighbour, according to local witnesses.
Three individuals who had been missing since the previous attack were also found dead, bringing the total number of Orthodox Christian victims in the area to 33 since October.
His Holiness Baselios Marthoma Mathews III, the Patriarch of the Malankara Orthodox Church of India, has conveyed heartfelt condolences to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and its followers after recent attacks. He condemned the violence against Orthodox Christians.
#Ethiopia
In many parts of the Oromia Region, churches are being forcibly closed.
In the Eastern Arsi Zone alone, at least seven to eight Orthodox Christians are killed every single day. Many others are beaten, their properties destroyed, and entire families are displaced from their homes.
His Holiness Baselios Marthoma Mathews III, Patriarch of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, calls on world leaders and religious leaders for unity and peace to end violence, #Christian_persecution, and killings in #Ethiopia, #Nigeria, and other parts of the world.
#ETHIOPIA: Killings of Orthodox Christians are still continuing. Six Orthodox Christians confirmed killed yesterday and 3 today in East Arsi, Oromia, Ethiopia, by Oromo Islamists and ethnic extremists. The gov’t and the church’s synod have done nothing to stop the massacre yet.
While the world speaks for nigerian christians there is completely forgotten far worse persecution in the worlds first christian nation with Ethiopian Orthodox Christians.
We demand global attention, protection, and human dignity.
Normalizing the slaughter and massacre of #Orthodox Church clergymen and worshippers — especially by those calling themselves “Protestant pastors” reveals the depth of wickedness and the inhumanity of their souls. Those who twist faith to justify evil will not escape God’s judgment. #EOTC #Orthodoxunderattack #Ethiopia
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”
— Matthew 7:15
“Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.”
— 2 Peter 2:3