Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church condemns Tigray ‘genocide’ | Ethiopia News

The head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church has accused government forces of committing “genocide” in the Tigray region of the country. six months of conflict It is believed to have killed thousands of federal and allied troops and forces loyal to the former party government.

Filmed last month on a mobile phone and taken from Ethiopia, Patriarch Abune Mathias has addressed millions of church followers and the international community, saying her previous attempts have been blocked.

“I’m not clear why they want to express genocide to the people of Tigray,” says the patriarch, a Tigrinya ethnic group, who speaks Amharic.

“They want to destroy the people of Tigray,” he added, including the destruction of churches, massacres, forced famine and robberies.

“It’s not the fault of the Tigray people. The whole world should know, ”he continues. Encouraging international and local action, he says, “this bad season may be gone.”

The comments are a striking allegation of someone so old in Ethiopia where the state media reflects the government’s narrative and both independent journalists and tigers have been intimidated and persecuted. The video also comes a few weeks before Ethiopia arrived, sometimes facing multiple crises with deadly ethnic tensions, leading to national elections on June 5th.

Dennis Wadley, who runs Bridges of Hope in the U.S. and a friend of the church leader for several years, told the Associated Press that he recorded the video at an impulsive moment while visiting the Ethiopian capital, Addis, last month. Ababa.

“If you want to take out my iPhone and get the word out, let’s do it,” Wadley said after arriving in the U.S. on Friday. “It’s heartbreaking … It’s very sad. I really hugged it; I never did that.”

A church official arrived on Friday to confirm the video and Abune Mathias ’interest in making it public. The patriarch of the church has Abune Merkorios next to an exile who has recently returned.

“I’ve said a lot of things but no one lets me share the message. Rather, he is being drowned and censored, ”Abune Mathias says in the video.

In recent days “a great deal of barbarism has taken place” throughout Ethiopia, he says, “but what is happening in Tigray is one of the greatest savagery and cruelty.”

God will judge everything, he adds.

Former Ethiopian Foreign Minister Berhane Gebre-Christos has said that the religious leader Al Jazeera has long spoken out against injustice and that his words carry “great weight” inside and outside Ethiopia.

“This is a highly respected patriarch in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and in the Orthodox churches of the world,” said Berhane, who is also a member of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the first party in Tigray’s government, appointed by the Ethiopian parliament this week. “terrorist” organization.

“He has spoken to the people of Ethiopia and at the same time called on the world and the international community to take direct and firm action,” Berhane added.

Fighting broke out in Tigray in early November 2020, according to the government, when forces loyal to the TPLF attacked regional army bases. After months of violence, relations between the TPLF and the federal government deteriorated as the party discriminated against the Tigris and tried to centralize power – accusations that the government rejects. A TPLF spokesman denied that the group had carried out its first strike.

The Ethiopian government says it is “very concerned” over the deaths of civilians in Tigray, blames the TPLF and says about six million people will return to normalcy. He has denied Tigray’s profile and broad destination.

Witnesses in several credible reports said they had seen corpses scattered on the ground in communities, rounded off and expelled tigers, and women raped by Ethiopian and allied forces, including those around Eritrea. Others have described family members and co-workers, including the fact that priests have been arrested and detained, often without charge.

The church has been the scene of massacres – an deacon from Axum has told the AP he believes about 800 people died in the church and city in the weekend in November – and in mass graves.

“People fell to the ground like leaves,” says patriarch Axum, one of Ethiopia’s most sacred cities.

Abune Mathias, born in 1942, appeared in the past. In 1980, he became the first church leader to denounce the rule of the communist regime in Ethiopia, “and was forced to live abroad for more than thirty years,” according to the United Nations Refugee Agency.