Social media sites including TikTok, Facebook, and Telegram have been blocked due to widespread unrest brought on by a split in Ethiopia’s Orthodox Christian church.
The church has accused Ethiopia’s government of meddling in its affairs after recently labelling a splinter organization in the largest part in the nation as “illegal.” Despite a government warning, it has vowed to hold a rally on Sunday.
The church split after churchgoers in Oromia announced a new synod on January 22. They claimed this was necessary because they needed to practice their faith in regional tongues, which is followed by the majority of Ethiopia’s more than 110 million people. Several church leaders who took part in the split were excommunicated by the church.
The government would not intervene, the Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has asked churchgoers to resolve their concerns.
However, many churchgoers accuse the prime minister, who is Oromo by ethnicity and a Protestant, of weakening the church and supporting the breakaway synod.
The church said on Friday that Abiy and the church patriarch were in discussions over the scandal that has swept several areas of the nation.
As of Thursday night, social media sites were “blocked in Ethiopia amid anti-government rallies,” according to the internet watchdog NetBlocks.
Several dozen cities and towns, especially in Oromia and on the outskirts of the capital, Addis Abeba, had occasionally violent rallies earlier in the week.
At least eight individuals were reportedly killed by security forces in Shaashamane in the Oromia region on Saturday, according to the government-appointed Ethiopian Human Rights Commission on Friday. There were a lot of arrests, it was reported.
The government in a statement Thursday accused unnamed groups of aiming to “shake the government using armed violence.” It said the government has begun “bringing to justice who are taking part in the movement.”
