The fourth patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox church, who is credited with being key in unifying two feuding factions of the church has died, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said.
Abune Merkorios took over the leadership of the church — one of the world’s oldest Christian churches — in the late 1980s after his predecessor died of natural causes.
But the church split in 1991 over the naming of a new patriarch after the Ethiopian People’s Revolu-tionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) removed the Derg military junta from power.—Agencies
