Ethiopian Orthodox Church Patriarch Abune Mathias has returned today to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, completing his medical treatment in the United States.
The Church has held welcoming ceremonies at the Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, and at St. Marry Church in Arat Kilo area. Abune Mathias went for medical treatment to north America around the end of July 2022.
At the welcoming event, it is indicated that Abune Mathias returned to his country with better health condition. Abune Mathias (born Teklemariam Asrat; 5 January 1941) is the current Patriarch of Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church since 2013. He replaced the former Patriarch Abune Paulos who passed away on August 16, 2012 not long after the sudden death of the late Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi.
Patriarch Abune Mathias is from Tigray region of Ethiopia like his predecessor. In his recent comments to Tigray TV, Patriarch Abune Mathias has made controversial and pro-Tigray comment that emphasized only the damage to Tigray region and its people as a result of the war between TPLF and Ethiopian troops started in November 2020.
Meanwhile during the war, millions of people in Afar and Amhara regions of Ethiopia have displaced during the inversion of TPLF in the two regions, which also led to the killings of thousands of civilians and damage to properties. But, Patriarch Abune Mathias didn’t mentioned those sufferings taking side to his ethnic group like the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Tedros Adhanom. In his March 2022 interview with Tigray Media House he rather said: “the war is aimed at eliminating Tigray ethnic group from Ethiopia”.
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