World Watch Monitor, 27November 2019
The authorities in Ethiopia’s northern region of Amhara had told the Ethiopian Fellowship of Evangelical Students it no longer could operate in the town of Debark.
Earlier this month, the police arrived to make arrests.
They showed up at a 3 November gathering and arrested an undisclosed number of people attending the event.
Police pressured students to sign an agreement never to gather in Debark. Seven church leaders, detained for three days, were released after they signed a similar agreement.
The dominant Ethiopian Orthodox Church considers the Debark region to be holy, and pressure on Protestant Christians in the area has been growing for years.
Ethiopia’s politics are charged by pronounced ethnic and religious divisions.