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Category: Weaponized SGBV

devex: The price women and girls are paying for Ethiopia’s war

Posted on by Sami Mulaw

UM RAKUBA CAMP, Sudan — Marta’s life in the town of Shire in Ethiopia was happy. She attended school — where she loved math class the most — and afterward helped out at her parents’ clothing shop.

But then November came. The Ethiopian government launched a military campaign in the country’s northern Tigray region, and chaos ensued. Marta and her brother spent 12 days hiding in the forest. She returned to town to search for her parents, then six armed men broke into her home and one of them raped her.

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BBC: Ethiopia’s Tigray crisis: ‘I lost my hand when a soldier tried to rape me’

Posted on by Sami Mulaw

An Ethiopian schoolgirl has told the BBC how she lost her right hand defending herself from a soldier who tried to rape her – and who had also tried to force her grandfather to have sex with her.

The 18-year-old, who we are not naming, has been in hospital in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region for more than two months recovering from her ordeal.

The conflict in Tigray, which erupted in early November 2020 when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched an offensive to oust the region’s ruling TPLF party after its fighters captured federal military bases, has destroyed her dreams, and those of many of her classmates.

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Fox News: Ethiopia’s secret war in Tigray region: Ethnic killings, rapes, near-starvation reported

Posted on by Tech Support

Many women have “conclusively and without a doubt” been raped in the Tigray region, home to Ethiopia’s secretive conflict – which may have left tens of thousands of civilians dead – the country’s minister for women said Thursday in a rare government admission of its fallout.

More than 100 women in the largely remote northern region have reported being raped amid the four-month-long conflict between Ethiopian forces and allied fighters – including Eritrean fighters whose presence is denied – and the fugitive former leaders of Tigray who long dominated Ethiopia’s government.

The rape allegations have come out despite women having few police or health facilities for reporting alleged crimes.

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HRW: Ethiopia – Unlawful Shelling of Tigray Urban Areas

Posted on by Tech Support

Ethiopian federal forces carried out apparently indiscriminate shelling of urban areas in the Tigray region in November 2020 in violation of the laws of war, Human Rights Watch said today. Artillery attacks at the start of the armed conflict struck homes, hospitals, schools, and markets in the city of Mekelle, and the towns of Humera and Shire, killing at least 83 civilians, including children, and wounding over 300.

“At the war’s start, Ethiopian federal forces fired artillery into Tigray’s urban areas in an apparently indiscriminate manner that was bound to cause civilian casualties and property damage,” said Laetitia Bader, Horn of Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “These attacks have shattered civilian lives in Tigray and displaced thousands of people, underscoring the urgency for ending unlawful attacks and holding those responsible to account.”

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LA Times: I reported on Ethiopia’s secretive war. Then came a knock at my door

Posted on by Tech Support

A few days earlier, a therapist who has been treating the rape survivor I wrote about told me that the woman had also received a threatening phone call, warning her not to identify Eritreans as her assailants. The therapist told me to take as much care as possible with the woman’s safety, and pleaded with me to reveal little of her identity in the article.

Before the men left, they warned that things would be harder for me the next time. On Thursday the Ethiopian government issued a statement saying I was not a “legally registered” journalist, an attempt to discredit my work.

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REUTERS: ‘Choose – I kill you or rape you’: abuse accusations surge in Ethiopia’s war

Posted on by Eyasu Berhe

“The soldier … forced a gun on her and raped her,” Limeuh, who was volunteering with the Sudanese Red Crescent, said the woman told him. “She asked him if he had a condom and he said ‘why would I need a condom?’”

Among a “high number” of allegations, particularly disturbing reports have emerged of people being forced to rape relatives or have sex in exchange for basic supplies, the U.N. Office of the Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict said in a statement on Thursday.

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AP: UN warns of ‘serious’ rape charges in Ethiopia’s Tigray

Posted on by Eyasu Berhe

The U.N. special representative on sexual violence in conflict says “serious allegations of sexual violence” have emerged in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region, while women and girls face shortages of rape kits and HIV drugs amid restrictions on humanitarian access.

New arrivals in camps for refugees and internally displaced people are reporting sexual violence, and “there are increasing reports of sexual violence against women and girls” inside the camps, Patten’s statement said.

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UN: Urges all parties to prohibit the use of sexual violence and cease hostilities in the Tigray

Posted on by Eyasu Berhe

United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Ms. Pramila Patten: “I am greatly concerned by serious allegations of sexual violence in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, including a high number of alleged rapes in the capital, Mekelle. There are also disturbing reports of individuals allegedly forced to rape members of their own family, under threats of imminent violence. Some women have also reportedly been forced by military elements to have sex in exchange for basic commodities, while medical centres have indicated an increase in the demand for emergency contraception and testing for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) which is often an indicator of sexual violence in conflict. In addition, there are increasing reports of sexual violence against women and girls in a number of refugee camps.”

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EEPA: Situation Report EEPA HORN No. 42

Posted on by Eyasu Berhe

Reports of rape of Tigray women as part of the violence carried out on civilians in Tigray.

Aid agencies say that they are still largely unable to access the rest of Tigray. No communications, damaged infrastructure and government restrictions have stopped them from reaching most areas in Tigray. The Ethiopian government is still refusing full access.

The report noted that “crimes against humanity of this nature combined with the current national context are signs that the risk of atrocity crimes, including genocide, is increasing”. They call for investigation and “a lasting institutional solution.”

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ABC News: Ethiopia’s hidden war in Tigray threatens return to ethnic violence and instability

Posted on by Eyasu Berhe

Tens of thousands of people have fled the ongoing conflict in Tigray, crossing Ethiopia’s border into Sudan and arriving at refugee camps. Abu Obeida El Siddig Mohamed, chief field officer for the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund in Kassala, eastern Sudan, said the Tigrayan refugees he’s screened — many women and children — are “exhausted,” “traumatized” and “in dire need of assistance.”

“I am an activist and we have some activists on the ground who try to feed us with some information from time to time,” Gidey told ABC News. “But the the one thing that we’re hearing predominantly is the cities that are controlled by forces loyal to Abiy Ahmed are going through horrific, horrific experiences. Mothers are being raped, properties and houses are being looted. The young generation, particularly those who are believed to have the capacity to mobilize the youths, are being shot at.”

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