At Least 48 Killed in Saturday’s Attack in Arsi’s Shirka, Addis Standard Reports

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A man in a brown jacket stands at the edge of a long, freshly dug trench in which bodies wrapped in white cloth lie side by side, with piles of dark earth around it.

Victims of Saturday’s attack are buried together at a church in Chole, Shirka woreda. Video frame, unverified, shared on X on Oct. 24, 2026. [Video frame via @neby_G on X; TikTok @adis.gezahegn]

At least 48 people were killed in Saturday’s attack on Chole and Birbo kebeles in Shirka woreda, in the Arsi area of Oromia, Addis Standard reported on Monday, adding that more than 31 were wounded and at least six children were among the dead. An eyewitness told DW Amharic that about 55 people died.

The witness, a local resident who asked DW not to use his name, said an armed force opened heavy fire on Chole from three sides at about half past six on Saturday morning, and that the shooting, backed by heavy weapons, went on until about eleven. “The heavy gunfire they opened on us from three sides was not something farmers should have to face,” he said, according to DW Amharic. He said 11 of the dead were women and children, and that most of those killed were Christians while seven were Muslims. Houses were burned and property destroyed, DW said.

Residents and church workers have given different numbers since Saturday, and none of them has been independently verified. Three residents told BBC Amharic on Sunday that 46 people were killed, and a church servant in the woreda said 43 died in Chole kebele alone. One resident said at least seven children were among the dead, including children aged five, seven and ten, while another said at least five children were killed. The Arsi diocese of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church said 42 people were killed and 18 wounded, according to its statement as relayed by Kotet Amharic. Meseret Media said on Saturday that more than 45 Orthodox Christians were killed and that 36 bodies were collected from a single location.

The dead were buried together on Saturday in one pit at the St. Raphael church in Chole, two residents whose fathers were among the victims and church sources told the BBC. “It is because each grave cannot be dug, there is no time, and the enemy might not let us bury them, because the danger is still close,” one church source said. The church servant said more than 20 wounded people were in hospital, “very seriously hurt,” and that some had died on Saturday and Sunday. He said he feared the toll would rise.

Accounts of when the attack began also differ. The BBC’s sources said the villages were surrounded at about 11 o’clock in the Ethiopian count, around 5 a.m., when many of the men who had been on night guard duty had gone home to rest. “We were surrounded from four corners at 11 o’clock before dawn, when we were not prepared and did not know,” said a resident whose 75-year-old father was killed, using the Ethiopian clock, in which that is about 5 a.m. Another resident, who said he got up and fought beside his father, a kebele militia member, said the two sides were never equal. “They fought us with snipers and Bren guns,” he said. His father was killed. The diocese, as quoted by Kotet Amharic, and the outlet Borkena both put the start of the attack late on Friday night.

Residents told the BBC that some victims were killed inside their homes after the attackers broke down the doors, and that others were killed after they had fled to a nearby church. The church servant, who called it “a mass slaughter,” said security forces stationed nearby reached the area but “could not stop anything,” and that Digelu Medhane Alem church was hit with heavy weapons and looted. Ethio Focus, a local outlet based in Asella, reported that Orthodox residents of Gobesa, the woreda town, called on the police and security forces for help as soon as the attack began, and that they were told “we have not been given orders,” according to its report as shared on X.

The Oromia regional government blamed what it called the Tsimdo force, the name officials use for the alliance of armed groups that includes the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), the TPLF and Fano. Hailu Adugna, head of the Oromia Communication Service, said the force had tried to create ethnic and religious conflict to divert attention from the heavy losses it suffered in northern Ethiopia, and that the attempt had failed, according to the BBC and BBC Afaan Oromoo. Hailu expressed the regional government’s condolences over the deaths in Chole and Birbo, said it would press on “with the people” with the action it had begun against those responsible, and promised help for the wounded and the displaced. His statement gave no number of dead. DW said it tried to reach the OLA, which stands accused of the attack, by calling an adviser to its commander, but did not get through. The OLA has denied blame for earlier killings in the area and has called for independent investigations.

The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said it was aware of the attack. “We have the information, it is a matter we are following,” Meti Atomsa, the commission’s senior director for monitoring and investigation, told the BBC. “There is nothing concrete in our hands right now,” Meti added.

In a statement carried by the church’s media on Facebook, the Arsi diocese said, according to the BBC, the killing of Christians by armed forces in Shirka “has been getting worse from time to time.” It said Archbishop Abune Elsa’e had held repeated talks with officials, and that the attacks had been reported “from the lower government offices up to the Ministry of Peace,” with “no solution given so far.”

Saturday’s attack was the second deadly one in Shirka in about a week. Residents told the BBC that at least six people were killed and at least five abducted in attacks in Shirka and Honkolo Wabe woredas between Oct. 12 and 17, and a source in neighboring Merti woreda said more than 15 people were killed in Gora Silingo kebele overnight last Tuesday. In a report released in July, the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO) said 458 people had been killed in Arsi zone over four years and 38 were unaccounted for, and that armed groups had targeted Orthodox Christians for their faith. Muslims in the area have also been attacked in the past. Abiy Ahmed blamed the OLA for attacks on civilians and religious institutions during last year’s national election, the BBC noted.

On X, Mesfin (@princeMesfin) wrote in Amharic, “How long will you trade in the blood of innocents? How long will you push your political aims with the blood of innocent Orthodox Christians?” Tarik Adugna (@AdugnaTarik) wrote in Amharic, “May the Creator have mercy on the souls of innocent citizens who knew nothing, killed by murderers who drink human blood. Lord, give your judgment. Sometimes words fail.” Ray (@Rayo39844977) wrote in Arabic, “They took refuge in the church to escape the killing, so they followed them inside the church and killed them in cold blood.” The account Boneya Sokso (@BoneyaSokso) wrote in Amharic of “Tsimdo’s terror attack in Shirka,” blaming “Shene, Fano, TPLF and other terror groups” that it said had formed an alliance to break up the country.

Sources