The US-based human rights group International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned a mob of 300 Muslims killed six Christians in early October while 15 others were left seriously wounded by the attack during a midnight worship service in Beshasha, a town located in the Agaro province in Ethiopia.

On 14 October, a group of three hundred Muslims, carrying guns and knives approached the church where the Orthodox Christians were holding a midnight worship service. When the locked doors prevented the mob from entering the church they forced the congregation out of the church by pouring gasoline around the building.

The men of the church came out first and attempted to defend the men and women but because they had no real weapons in comparison to the guns and knives used against them they were attacked by the mob.

Fifteen individuals from the church suffered severe knife wounds and six people died as a result - two priests, two elderly women, and two men.

Two weeks later, the Ethiopian media announced that the police had arrested the leader of the massacre. But ICC warns that the violence against Christians continues to increase steadily despite the arrest.

It was only two weeks before the Beshasha massacre that another attack on Christians occurred in Jimma, Ethiopia because Muslims opposed Orthodox Christians celebrating the traditional Meskel holiday.

ICC warned that Muslims in the Horn of Africa are becoming increasingly radical and violent and are being urged to export that violence to surrounding countries.

This trend is almost certainly affecting Christians in Ethiopia, ICC said. The Union of Islamic Courts in Somalis recently called for Jihad against Ethiopia, appealing to Muslims of the Horn to rise up against anyone who would dare come against the religion of Allah.

ICC remains concerned as it warned that the tragic incident may only be a precursor of things to come as Muslims in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania are radicalised.

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