12/06/2019 Ethiopia (International Christian Concern) – Recent social upheavals in Ethiopia have resulted in the beheading of two local pastors.
Just over 20 miles Southwest of the capital, Addis Ababa, lies the small town of Sebeta. The settlement is predominantly Islamic with only a handful of Christian institutions active in the area. A local Muslim leader, Jawar Mohammed, recently lost his personal security protection granted to him by the state and responded by stirring up social fervor among his local acolytes.
The town’s population erupted, with riots forming and mobs coalescing across the urban center to protest the actions of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government. Eventually, the militant locals made their ways en masse to the homes of Pastors Isaias and Assefa Tesfaye, of Full Gospel Church and Mekane Yesus Lutheran Church respectively. Both men were seized and beheaded following the storming of their residence compounds.
In the end, they were only two of 67 total fatalities and 213 wounded as the unrest continued in protests. Locals were beaten and stoned on horrific scales; town infrastructure and private residences were wrecked by the spontaneous furor. The government summoned the Ethiopian military to restore order to the township over the days following. Such incidents akin to this have been on the rise for the past couple years, and have resulted in the internal displacement of over two million Ethiopian natives.
