In a report received by BBC World news has come of an attack on an Ethiopian Orthodox Church in the south-western Oromia Regional State. 29 people including women carrying children were taken into the forest and murdered. The UK Government has been asked to establish what is being done to hold to account those who were responsible

Gunmen kill 29 in south-west Ethiopia church attack

   Members of an Ethiopian rebel group have killed 29 people in an attack on an Ethiopian Orthodox Church in the south-western Oromia Regional State, privately-owned Addis Standard reported on 9 March. According to a resident, cited by the website, a number of gunmen stormed the church in Debos Kebele neighbourhood on 5 March as residents marked the beginning of an eight-week fasting season (Great Lent). “Of the victims, 21 were women, including those carrying babies, who were taken to a nearby forest before being killed,” a resident, named Hussein, told Addis Standard. The witness identified the gunmen as members of the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA). Residents are said to be fleeing to neighbouring districts and neighbourhoods as “the perpetrators are still in the vicinity”, the paper said.

Question tabled today in Parliament by Lord Alton of Liverpool: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of reports of mass killings of civilians in the Oromia region of Ethiopia; and what steps they are taking in response.