Sexual violence in the Tigray region of Ethiopia

TW - Mention of rape and sexual violence

Since November 2020, thousands of women have been subjected to sexual violence in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. There, conflict broke out between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). The TPLF previously ruled Ethiopia for almost 30 years, and did not want to join Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's new political party, leading to rising tensions between the two sides. A year into the conflict, up to 100,000 people have been killed and most of the 6 million people in Tigray are reliant on emergency aid. This is despite Abiy’s claim that “there is no hunger in Tigray.” Due to government blockades and fuel shortages, humanitarian supplies struggle to reach the region. Earlier this year, CNN reported that the government has arbitrarily detained, tortured and killed ethnic Tigrayans, with the TPLF also being responsible for civilian casualties. There are multiple reports of bodies bearing marks of torture being collected from the river in South Sudan. Now, nine government opposition groups have formed The United Front and vowed to take the capital, Addis Ababa. Abiy declared a national state of emergency, and The Guardian reports that the legislation is used to detain ethnic Tigrayans.

Due to the communications blackout in Tigray and the sensitivity of the matter, we were unable to speak to any survivors for this piece and give them the platform they deserve.

The conflict in Ethiopia is incredibly complex, and we wish to provide a brief overview to the best of our ability, based on third party reporting. The aim of this piece is to call for protection for civilians, for the survivors of sexual violence to get justice and to receive the support they need. It is to call for the prevention of further atrocities.

Amnesty International has documented horrific accounts of soldiers forcibly inserting metal objects into survivors’ vaginas, and of HIV transmission. One survivor, Letay (name changed to protect her identity) told Amnesty “Three men came into the room [...] They raped me one after the other […] I was four months pregnant; I don’t know if they realized I was pregnant. I don’t know if they realized I was a person.” Another pregnant survivor, Nigist, was raped by three men in front of her child. Out of the 63 survivors that Amnesty International interviewed, twenty eight stated the perpetrators were Eritrean, with others thought to be Ethiopian government soldiers or from the Amhara region. From February to April 2021, there were 1,288 cases of gender-based violence registered by health facilities in Tigray, however, this may be the tip of the iceberg. Many survivors did not visit such facilities, due to lack of access.

A joint report by the UN Human Rights Commission and the Ethiopian Government confirms that all sides "committed violations of international human rights, humanitarian and refugee law, some of which may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity."

Whilst the experiences of women in Tigray are horrendous, they are by no means unique. Soldiers have used rape as a weapon of war in previous conflicts, such as in the DRC, and they will continue to do so unless we take gender-based violence seriously. The UN estimates that one in three women will be subjected to violence in their lifetime, and around the world, we hear time and time again of survivors being silenced. It is imperative that we not only listen to the survivors in Tigray, but that they receive sustained support and that international actors such as the UN and African Union act urgently to end the conflict. Failure to do so not only threatens the safety of survivors and of other vulnerable people in the region, but risks casting the Horn of Africa as a whole into disarray.

To learn more about the crisis, follow @omnatigray on Instagram

Lara is one of Women in Foreign Policy’s Social Media Content Coordinators. She is currently working towards a Master's in Contemporary European Studies and has a keen interest in journalism and women’s rights.