By Meskerem Lemma
Ethiopians are reeling from the the killing of the 30 Ethiopians in Libya by barbaric sub-human group that is calling itself - the Islamic State. The shock, sorrow, heartbreak, anger and outrage over the killings felt by Ethiopians at home and abroad is boundless.
The Ethiopian Parliament convened yesterday and declared a three-day National mourning for the victims in Libya and South Africa. Accordingly, Federal and State flags will be flown half-mast in period of national mourning throughout the nation and Ethiopian embassies and vessels abroad. The three-day mourning period is also extended to those killed in South Africa.
The mourning comes following a series of tragedies in the past week. The victims were planning to go to Europe by boat from Libya but were captured and then killed by the Islamic extremists. The news came only a few days after African migrants, including Ethiopians, have experienced xenophobic attacks in South Africa where in several Ethiopians were killed, their shops looted and burned by a mob. The news on Sunday also followed news of a boat that sank over the weekend with hundreds of African migrants in the Mediterranean Sea, which is suspected also carrying fellow Ethiopian men and women, and a civil war in Yemen that caught Ethiopian migrant workers trapped and again many are believed to have been killed..
Ethiopians and friends of Ethiopia have been expressing their outrage since the killings. The murders have horrified Ethiopians and sparked global condemnation, including from Pope Francis who expressed his "great distress and sadness," at the "further shocking violence perpetrated against innocent Christians in Libya.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Church's Holy Synod strongly denounced the murder of Christians in Libya. The Church pledged to do all necessary to the dead as per her cannons. It emphasized the perpetrators are terrorists and do not represent any religion. His Holiness Abune Mathias, Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, called the killings "repugnant."
The Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Supreme Council also issued a statement denouncing the massacre. President of the Council called the Libyan massacre "anti-Islam" and barbaric. He asserted that religion won't divide Ethiopians when it comes to protecting their country.
As part of the mourning, joint prayers were held along with Muslim leaders, led by Sheikh Mohammed Awol Umer Jamal, Head of Ethiopia's Islamic Affairs Supreme Council, who said the killing of people like "chickens" had no place in Islam.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the killings and "utterly deplores the targeting of people on the basis of their religious affiliation," his spokesman said. The UN Security Council also condemned "the heinous and cowardly apparent murder" of more than 30 Ethiopian Christians and stressed again that the Islamic State group "must be defeated and that the intolerance, violence and hatred it espouses must be stamped out."
The Council demanded the immediate release of all hostages held by the extremist group and called for those responsible for the "reprehensible acts of terrorism" to be brought to justice. "We have a duty to raise our voice to tell the world that the killing of the innocent like animals is completely unacceptable," he said.
The Cairo-based top Muslim body Al-Azhar on Monday condemned the executions of the 30 Ethiopian Christians captured in Libya by the Islamic State group. Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's prestigious seat of learning, condemned the "heinous terrorist crime committed by terrorist group Daesh," on its Facebook page, using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State. The actions of "Daesh and other similar organisations do not comply by any means with any religion, human laws and customs," it said.
Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi's office also denounced the killings, and called for an international effort to end the crisis in Libya. The international community must "assume its responsibility and support Libya's national army, the Libyan government, and the elected parliament through swift and effective steps to settle the crisis in Libya," it said in a statement. It said efforts must be taken to "restore the Libyan state and its security and stability, as well as halting money and arms flows to terrorist and extremist groups present in Libya."
The United States of America also strongly condemned the "brutal mass murder" of the Ethiopian Christians following a video released by Islamic State militants purportedly showing their execution. National Security Council Spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan decried the killings and called for stability in Libya, which has been mired in political chaos and unrest since the 2011 uprising that toppled former strongman Muammar Gaddafi.
"The United States condemns in the strongest terms the brutal mass murder purportedly of Ethiopian Christians by ISIL-affiliated terrorists in Libya," she said, using another name for IS. "This atrocity once again underscores the urgent need for a political resolution to the conflict in Libya to empower a unified Libyan rejection of terrorist groups."
And waves of would-be immigrants including Ethiopians have been using Libya as a stepping stone to embark on perilous sea crossings to Europe. More than 700 people are feared drowned in the latest disaster.
IS has carried out atrocities against Christians and Muslims alike- sparking fears for the fate of vulnerable communities in mostly Muslim nations.
Islam has an ancient history in Ethiopia, brought to the country by some of the earliest followers of Prophet Mohammed, who were sheltered there by the Christian king
Source: AllAfrica
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