Ethiopia’s influential Orthodox church yesterday criticised Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s response to ethnic and religious clashes that left nearly 70 dead, saying he was failing to protect its members.

Violence erupted in the capital Addis Ababa and the outlying Oromia region on Wednesday after a prominent activist accused security forces  f trying to orchestrate an attack against him—a claim police officials denied. It quickly morphed into clashes and a police official said Friday that 67 people had died in Oromia.

“People are dying and questions are being raised if the government even exists. The people are losing all hope,” Father Markos Gebre-Egziabher, a leader in the Orthodox Tewahedo Church, told AFP following a memorial service at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Addis Ababa.