US Ambassador Ervin Massinga, in a dark suit, shakes hands with Patriarch Abune Mathias, in black robes and a black turban, in a room hung with icons

US Ambassador Ervin Massinga Meets Patriarch Abune Mathias and Says He Is Talking With Ethiopian Officials About the Attacks on Christians in Arsi, Church Media Report

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US Ambassador Ervin Massinga, in a dark suit, shakes hands with Patriarch Abune Mathias, in black robes and a black turban, in a room hung with icons

US Ambassador Ervin J. Massinga greets Patriarch Abune Mathias of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church in Addis Ababa on Nov. 12, 2026. Photo: US Embassy Addis Ababa

US Ambassador Ervin Massinga met Patriarch Abune Mathias in Addis Ababa on Thursday and said he was talking with Ethiopian officials about ending attacks on Christians in Arsi, church media reported, according to BBC Amharic.

The embassy’s own account of the meeting did not mention Arsi. In a post on X, it said Massinga “discussed the importance of advancing religious freedom, interfaith harmony, and the right of all people to worship in peace” with the Patriarch, and that he “underscored how these core American values animate U.S. foreign policy in Ethiopia.” The church’s broadcaster, EOTC TV, posted that Abune Mathias had received a delegation led by the ambassador at his office.

According to the church’s media, as BBC Amharic reported, Massinga told the Patriarch that the loss of life and property and the displacement caused by the attacks in Shirka woreda and nearby parts of the Arsi diocese had saddened the US government and the embassy, and that he was speaking with government bodies so the problem could be solved for good. He also said he would encourage other religious institutions to stand with the church, the report said.

Abune Mathias told him that many efforts had been made to stop the attacks on Orthodox believers in the Arsi diocese but that no lasting solution had been found, and that similar attacks kept happening from time to time in different woredas of the diocese, killing many Christians and driving others from their villages and their property. “Although many efforts have been made to solve the problem, it has not been possible to find a lasting solution. Even today we hear there are fears,” he said (our translation from Amharic). He said the Holy Synod had called for a period of prayer and held repeated talks with the government and others, but that it had not been able to stop the attacks altogether.

The Holy Synod said last month that 60 of its faithful were killed in two attacks in Arsi, 14 in Merti woreda on Oct. 20 and 46 in Shirka woreda on Oct. 24. The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said on Nov. 3 that Oromo Liberation Army fighters killed 41 people in Shirka’s Birbo Chole kebele, most of them members of kebele-level security units, and that informal armed men killed seven more civilians there. No group has claimed the attacks, and the Oromia regional government’s communication bureau has blamed the armed alliance it calls “Tsimdo.” On Oct. 31 the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs and Massinga himself said the United States was “deeply concerned” about targeted killings of civilians in Arsi and called on the Ethiopian government to investigate and bring those responsible to justice. Residents have told the BBC that the attacks in Arsi have continued and that more people were killed in recent days. Zegabi found no comment on Thursday’s meeting from the federal government in Addis Ababa.

Some replies to the embassy’s post asked why it had not said more. “It is easy to speak about religious freedom, interfaith harmony and peaceful worship in a meeting with the Patriarch. But where is that same voice when civilians are being killed, communities are being displaced, and serious human rights violations” are taking place, an account named Vault (@VaultA_21) wrote.

Sources