“The members of the Security Council expressed their deep concern about allegations of human rights violations and abuses, including reports of sexual violence against women and girls in the Tigray region, and called for investigations to find those responsible and bring them to justice,”
Eritrea told the Security Council on Friday that it has agreed to start withdrawing its troops from Tigray, acknowledging publicly for the first time its involvement in the conflict.
“Testimonies of some rape survivors reveal the brutal and heinous war being waged on the bodies of women and girls,” Pramila Patten, the U.N. special representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict said during a discussion about Tigray at Georgetown University’s Institute for Women, Peace and Security on Wednesday.
The U.N. says the majority of rapes reported have been committed 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.
Tigray Region Humanitarian Response: MHNT operating in Tigray as of 18 April 2021 – Week 15.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council expressed concern Thursday about humanitarian conditions and human rights in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, marking the council’s first collective comment on the conflict that has raged in the region for six months.
Lowcock, meanwhile, told the council last week that some 4.5 million of Tigray’s 6 million need humanitarian aid and that “there is no doubt that sexual violence is being used in this conflict as a weapon of war.” He cited alarmingly numerous reports of rape and other sexual attacks, mainly by men wearing the uniforms of various forces.
As the conflict in northern Ethiopia’s Tigray region enters its sixth month, the U.N. Security Council broke its silence Thursday to call for scaled-up humanitarian access and “a restoration of normalcy.
The Tigray interim administration estimates that at least 4.5 million of Tigray’s nearly 6 million people need humanitarian assistance. The United Nations has appealed for $1.5 billion to assist 16 million people in Tigray and across Ethiopia this year.
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.
