Source: http://rlprayerbulletin.blogspot.com/
Date: November 9, 2022
Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 670
THE BATTLE FOR ETHIOPIA: FROM TWO FRONTS TO ONE
- TPLF surrenders; OLA abducts church leaders in Oromia Region
By Elizabeth Kendal
Ethiopia map, showing location of reported OLA attacks.
map source
ETHIOPIA vs OLA: On Saturday night 22 October, gunmen believed to be from the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA – formerly known as ‘OLF-Shene’) stormed the Midre Genet St. Mariam Church in Gebre Guracha. Inside the church – which is located around 160km north-west of Addis Ababa in North Shewa Zone, Oromia Region – were priests, deacons and a church administrator who had gathered for an all-night prayer service. One deacon was killed in the attack and 11 others were abducted. By 4 November, one priest and the church administrator had been ransomed. To date, the whereabouts and condition of the other nine captives remain unknown. North of the capital, Addis Ababa, with three sides adjoining Amhara Region, North Shewa Zone (Oromia) is 84 percent Oromo, 15 percent Amhara, 5.3 percent Muslim and 94 percent Christian. A priest from North Shewa Selale Diocese Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (EOTC) told the Addis Standard (4 Nov) that most of the churches in North Shewa Zone’s eight districts have stopped providing services due to insecurity. According to the diocesan head, members of the parish council of Harbu Bose St. Michael church have also been abducted and the diocese is working with security forces to free them. Another local priest confirms that militants ‘taking hostages and asking for money’ has ‘become more common in this area’.
Religion in Ethiopia
map source
As RLPB has long reported, the Christian Crisis is especially severe throughout Oromia Region’s majority Christian north-west where militant Oromo ethnic nationalists and separatists are waging a campaign of terror aimed at driving out the minority Amhara [see RLPB 652 (6 July 2022)]. On Sunday morning 6 November, OLA militants entered Nekemte, a market town around 330km west of Addis Ababa in East Welega Zone. East Welega Zone is 89 percent Oromo, 10.5 percent Amhara, 8 percent Muslim and 78 percent Christian. Having targeted a military base, the militants opened fire on Ethiopian government soldiers. Days earlier in West Welega Zone, OLA militants took control of Mendi, Kiltu Kara and Leta Sibu towns, looting property and abducting officials. West Welega Zone is 77 percent Oromo, 21 percent Amhara, 19 percent Muslim and 79 percent Christian. The terrorists also ambushed a vehicle as it travelled through Bengua town, 20km west of Mendi town. The vehicle was carrying medical and other supplies as well as students, who were travelling home to Kamashi after sitting their national exam in Assosa. The terrorists looted all the supplies and abducted 16 students, who remain missing as security forces endeavour to locate and free them.
ETHIOPIA vs TPLF: On 2 November 2022 – one day before the two-year anniversary of the TPLF’s massacre of the Northern Command (the massacre which triggered the war) – the Ethiopian Government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) signed an ‘Agreement for Lasting Peace Through a Permanent Cessation of Hostilities…’ [FULL TEXT]. The Agreement is, as one analyst put it, ‘more akin to a complete surrender than a compromise reached between two exhausted warring parties that find themselves in a stalemate or quagmire'. In late August, after the TPLF relaunched its war against the federal government, Prime Minister Abiy sent his forces on the offensive with orders to pursue the TPLF inside Tigray. With Abiy standing firm and the USA largely out of the picture, two months was all it took. Encircled, depleted and without supply, ‘the TPLF had no choice but to swallow the harsh, bitter, and unpalatable terms of the Agreement’.
The Agreement – which now enters the implementation phase – includes a comprehensive Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) program for the TPLF, as the parties recognise that Ethiopia has ‘only one defence force’ [Article 6]. The parties agree to respect the ‘sovereignty, territorial integrity, and unity of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia’ [Article 2]. Having fought to reclaim their ancestral lands in Welkait and Raya (farmlands the TPLF annexed into Tigray during its nearly 30-year rule), the Amhara are anxious that Articles 5.3 (on the return of the displaced) and 10.4 (on ‘resolving issues of contested areas’) will favour the TPLF at the expense of the original Amhara landowners [see RLPB 651 (29 June 2022)]; this will make for difficult negotiations. While a truce heralds the commencement of a long and difficult peace process, a rebel surrender is a great place to start. We praise and thank God for his mercy in preserving Ethiopia in answer to the prayers of many. The biggest issues facing the federal government now are: implementation of the Agreement – especially the disarmament of the TPLF and negotiations over ‘contested areas’, defeating the terrorist OLA (which is backed by Egypt and Sudan’s Islamist military) and, the most critical issue of all, Constitutional reform to address toxic ethnic nationalism and separatism. All this will take place within the context of the greatest battle of all: the spiritual Battle for Ethiopia (Ephesians 6:12).
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church worship in Afan Omoro (language) in East Welega, 2016.
(EOTC Channel, YouTube)
PLEASE PRAY THAT OUR MERCIFUL GOD WILL:
- intervene to sustain, protect and ultimately liberate the youths, officials and Christian leaders currently held hostage by the Oromo Liberation Army; Lord have mercy!
- grace Prime Minister Abiy and the entire Ethiopian government with wisdom, boldness and resolve to defeat the terrorist Oromo Liberation Army; may every person impacted by OLA terror seek and find their shelter in the Lord.
- sustain and strengthen Prime Minister Abiy and the entire Ethiopian government as they work to implement the Agreement made with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front; may the Holy Spirit, ‘the Lord and giver of life’, soften hearts and direct minds in favour of peace, reconciliation and Ethiopian unity – for the sake of Ethiopia’s mission-focused Church and every lost and needy soul who needs her, be they Ethiopian or otherwise.
- intervene to energise, guide and aid the process of constitutional reform and peace-making for the benefit of Ethiopia and the whole Horn of Africa. Lord have mercy!