Doctors showed Reuters the bloodstained stone and two 3-inch nails they said they had removed from her body.
The woman, 27, is among hundreds who have reported that they were subjected to horrific sexual violence by Ethiopian and allied Eritrean soldiers after fighting broke out in November in the mountainous northern region of Ethiopia, doctors said.
“Neither the U.N. nor any of the humanitarian agencies we work with have seen proof of Eritrean withdrawal,” Lowcock told the Security Council on Thursday. “We have, however, heard some reports of Eritrean soldiers now wearing Ethiopian Defense Force uniforms.”
For months, both sides denied Eritreans were involved, contradicting testimony from residents, rights groups, aid workers, and diplomats.
The conflict arrived in the middle of the harvest in Tigray and for months humanitarian access was greatly restricted, prompting fears of widespread starvation.
Lowcock said he had received a report earlier on Thursday that 150 people had died from hunger in Tigray and warned that “starvation as a weapon of war is a violation.”
“There is no doubt that sexual violence is being used in this conflict as a weapon of war,” Lowcock said, adding the majority of rapes were committed by men in uniform, with accusations made against all the warring parties.
ADIGRAT, Ethiopia (Reuters) – The young mother was trying to get home with food for her two children when she says soldiers pulled her off a minibus in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, claiming it was overloaded.
It was the beginning of an 11-day ordeal in February, during which she says she was repeatedly raped by 23 soldiers who forced nails, a rock and other items into her vagina, and threatened her with a knife.
The top public health official for the interim administration in Tigray Dr. Fasika Amdeselassie told Reuters that 829 rape cases have been reported at five hospitals since the fighting began in November.https://5910ffc374826a4162020c05eb3cf756.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html#xpc=sf-gdn-exp-4&p=https%3A//thehill.com
“Nearly a quarter of reports received by one agency involve gang rape, with multiple men assaulting the victim; in some cases, women have been repeatedly raped over a period of days. Girls as young as eight are being targeted,” Lowcock said.
After the Ethiopian government announced the withdrawal of Eritrean troops from its borders, Eritrean forces opened fire on civilians in the border town of Adwa, reportedly leaving at least nine dead and dozens injured. In late March, Ethiopian forces executed four men in front of Médecins sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) staff. Health officials and the UN continue to report on horrific sexual violence by Ethiopian and Eritrean forces. Millions remain in need of food assistance.
The U.N. humanitarian chief is warning that the grave humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region is deteriorating, with no sign of Eritrean troops withdrawing and alarmingly widespread reports of systematic rape and other sexual violence mainly by men in uniform.
“Cases reported have involved Ethiopian National Defense Forces, Eritrean Defense Forces, Amhara Special Forces and other irregular armed groups or aligned militia,”
The 27-year-old mother said uniformed soldiers from Eritrea pulled her off a minibus on the road from Mekelle to the city of Adigrat on Feb. 6. They tied her up and marched her through fields to a bush camp, she said. After 11 days of rapes and beatings, she said, the soldiers forced nails, cotton, plastic bags and a rock into her vagina and left her alone in the bush.
Fasika, the health official, said at least 829 cases of sexual assault have been reported at the five hospitals since the conflict in Tigray began. Those cases were likely “the tip of the iceberg,” Fasika said
Eleven women tell Reuters they had been raped by soldiers as a top Ethiopian official has made a sexual slavery accusation.
“Women are being kept in sexual slavery,” Fasika told Reuters. “The perpetrators have to be investigated.”
