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Protestor holding sign in support of women in Tigray
As of August2021[update], the number of rape victims ranged from a minimum estimate of 512–516 rapes registered with hospitals in early 2021[3][4] to 10,000 rapes, according to British parliamentarian Helen Hayes, and 26,000 women needing sexual and gender-based violence services, according to the United Nations Population Fund.[5][6] Several claims have been made implicating both sides of the conflict in the systematic use of rape as a weapon of war against the civilian population.[7][8][4][9][10]
In February 2021, Weyni Abraha from Yikono, a Tigrayan women's rights group, viewed the sexual violence during the Tigray War as a deliberate pattern of rape as a weapon of war, stating, in February 2021, "This is being done purposely to break the morale of the people, threaten them and make them give up the fight."[7]
In March 2021, The Daily Telegraph argued that testimonies showed that rape had been weaponized, stating that "survivors, doctors, aid workers and experts speaking to the Telegraph all pointed to rape being systematically used as a weapon of war by Ethiopian and Eritrean forces."[4] Reasons for the rape that were stated to the victims included the aim of "cleansing Tigrayan blood."[13]
In March 2021, nine doctors of medicine in Ethiopia and one in a Sudanese refugee camp interviewed by CNN, sexual violence in the Tigray War constituted rape as a weapon of war. The women treated by the doctors stated that the ENDF, EDF, and Amhara soldiers who raped them described Tigrayans as having no history and culture, that the intent was to "ethnically cleans[e] Tigray," to "Amharise" them or remove their Tigrayan identity and "blood line." One of the doctors, Tedros Tefera, stated, "Practically this has been a genocide."[8]
In April 2021, Mark Lowcock, the head of OCHA, told the United Nations Security Council that "sexual violence is being used as a weapon of war in Ethiopia's Tigray region, where girls as young as eight are being targeted and some women have reported being gang-raped over several days."[14]
In January 2022, Amnesty International published a report stating that acts of rape and violence by the TDF in the Amhara Region "may have been committed as part of a systematic attack against the Amhara civilian population."[9]
In March 2022, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission published a report stating that the TDF committed widespread and systematic acts of sexual violence against women and girls in the Afar and Amhara regions.[15]
In September 2022, the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia published a report stating that sexual violence has been perpetrated "on a staggering scale" since the onset of the hostilities in November 2020.[16] The Commission reported that in some cases the rapists showed a willingness to sterilise their victims and expressed their intention to destroy the tiger ethnic group.[16]
On 23 January, Reuters published an interview with a Tigrayan refugee who claimed that she had been raped at gunpoint by a soldier dressed in an ENDF uniform who stated that a condom was unnecessary. Aid workers and doctors described multiple reports of rape by Amhara and EDF security forces in towns including Rawyan, Wukro, Adigrat and Mekelle.[18]
On 30 January, in a speech made by Debretsion Gebremichael, the deposed leader of the Tigray Region, elected in September 2020 and deposed in the war, stated that "Mothers and daughters [were] being raped side by side", attributing the rapes to "the enemies".[20]
February 2021
On 1 February, EEPA reported that six young girls raped by the ENDF in Mekelle were threatened not to report the rape or seek medical care. A local doctor claimed that EDF and ENDF soldiers shot people who witnessed or tried to help women who were victims of rape in Aksum and as a result residents stopped reacting to women crying for help.[21] According to EEPA, the ENDF soldiers justified the rape on the grounds that "[the girls]' father is Dr. Debretsion and [the soldiers father]' is Dr. Abiy. We are not all the same." Women in a mill house were raped in kebele 17 of Mekelle after ENDF soldiers scared away the men; and 18 and 20-year-old women were raped in the Ayder area of Mekelle, according to EEPA.[21]
On 15 February, BBC News reported a doctor and a women's rights activist together having registered 200 girls under the age of 18 testifying as rape victims at Mekelle health centres and hospitals. An 18-year old schoolgirl interviewed by BBC News described how she had survived a rape attempt, but the assaulter shot her hand three times, forcing a doctor to amputate it when she later arrived at a hospital in Mekelle.[7]
On 28 February, 11[22] women studying at the Ayder Hospital in Mekelle were raped by the ENDF while en route from the library to their dormitories. They were treated in the hospital after the event.[23]
March 2021
As of early March, Adigrat hospital had registered 170 women treated for sexual violence, with a trend towards a worsening rate of incidents.[22]
Individual incidents reported in early March include a 15-year-old raped by the ENDF in Shire in front of forced witnesses including her brother; a woman in Kerseber (north of Adigrat) who was gang-raped twice and unable to walk when she arrived at a hospital; women in the outer parts of Mekelle were kidnapped for several weeks by soldiers, serving as forced domestic workers and sex slaves; a woman in outer Mekelle was raped nightly by the ENDF for a week before obtaining medical treatment.[22]
One incident included six women gang-raped by the EDF for 10 days. One of the six women stated to Channel 4 that the Eritrean soldiers joked, took photos, "injected her with a drug, tied her to a rock, stripped, stabbed and [repeatedly raped] her." Another woman's vagina was "stuffed with nails, stones and plastic."[13]
The rapes included men being forced to rape family members.[3]
August–September 2021
From 12 to 21 August, during the TDF occupation of Nefas Mewcha, 16 women were raped by TDF fighters according to individual interviews conducted by Amnesty International, with 71 or 73 women raped altogether according to official reports. The TDF also looted and destroyed medical facilities in Nefas Mewcha. The identification as TDF fighters was based on accents, ethnic slurs and the fighters' own statements. One of the commanders who raped a victim, Hamelmal, described the rape as revenge, stating, "Amhara is a donkey, Amhara has massacred our people [Tigrayans], the Federal Defense forces have raped my wife, now we can rape you as we want."[24]
In late August/early September, in Filakit Gereger, a 12-year-old girl interviewed by The Globe and Mail stated that she had been raped by four Tigrayan soldiers for "hours" in the presence of her father; a 14-year-old girl was raped by five or six uniformed Tigray soldiers. Witnesses estimated that "dozens" of girls and women had been raped by the Tigrayan soldiers, and that the Tigrayan forces had raped girls and women successively in several villages. The Globe and Mail stated that "the interviews were obtained independently, without the involvement of government officials".[10]
Between 31 August and 4 September,[25] while the TDF occupied of the village of Chenna Teklehaymanot and adjacent areas in Dabat district, at least 30 women and girls were raped and sexually assaulted by TDF soldiers. Victims described being forced to cook for the fighters, beatings, death threats, and ethnic slurs.[9]
Numbers
In late March 2021, the total number of rapes recorded for the Tigray War at five medical facilities in Mekelle, Adigrat, Wukro, Shire and Aksum was 512–516.[3][4] Wafaa Said, a United Nations aid coordinator, expected the true number of rapes to be much higher because most medical facilities had were not functioning and because of stigma associated with rape.[3] A doctor at a Mekelle hospital said that each rape victim typically reported 20 other women having been raped with her, who would not report the rape to any hospital.[4]
On 25 March 2021, British parliamentarian Helen Hayes stated that 10,000 women had been raped in the Tigray War.[6]
By mid-April 2021, Dr Fasika Amdeselassie, the top public health official in the Transitional Government of Tigray, stated that at least 829 cases of sexual assault had been reported at five active hospitals since the conflict in Tigray began and that the reported cases were likely to be "the tip of the iceberg".[26]
In July 2021, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimated that 26,000 women in the 15–49 years age range would need services for sexual and gender based violence in the Tigray War. Support services provided as of mid-June 2021 included the training of 13000 girls and young women and 34 social workers in "psychosocial support and gender-based violence referral pathways", financial support for 30 survivors, providing a mapping tool of mental health and psychosocial support services and training health care providers in psychosocial first aid.[5]
On 31 January 2021, Filsan Abdi, the federal Ethiopian Minister of Women, Children and Youth (MoWCY), stated in response to Debretsion Gebremichael's reference to sexual violence during the Tigray War that the federal government "had a zero-tolerance policy towards any form of sexual violence".[27] A task force from MoWCY, together with the Attorney GeneralAdanech Abebe and defence personnel, was set up to investigate sexual violence in the Tigray War.[28] The task force arrived in Mekelle on 1 February to interview victims, collect medical evidence and aid the victims.[29] On 11 February, Filsan confirmed that the task force had "established [that] rape [had] taken place conclusively and without a doubt". She stated that police were processing the "data in terms of numbers", making no statement about attribution. Agence France Presse (AFP) stated that many women had attributed the rapes to the EDF.[30]
Sehin Teferra, a feminist who co-founded Setaweet, described the minister's acknowledgment of rape occurring in the Tigray War as "a big thing". She stated that the rape was "happening on a large scale" and that Setaweet was aware of the rapes by the EDF from firsthand reports. She stated that some families in Tigray were shaving their daughters' heads and dressing them in boys' clothes to protect them from rape. She called for the authorities to also pay attention to sexual violence in the Metekel conflict.[30]
In September 2021, Filsan resigned from her ministership. In December 2021, she stated that "an official very high up in Abiy's office" had blocked publication of the task force's full report, and that she "had been told" to only include rapes by TPLF-associated fighters in the report. Her 11 February 2021 tweet had been a response to the blocking of the full report's publication. Filsan stated that rapes committed in the Amhara and Afar Regions during the late 2021 TDF–OLA joint offensive would have been less likely if there had been accountability for the rapes that occurred in Tigray Region. Her view was that as a result of not publishing the full report, "both sides felt they could just get away with it."[31]
Related Research Articles
Debretsion Gebremichael is an Ethiopian politician serving as the chairman of Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF). He was previously the president of the Tigray Region. His position as titular head of the Tigray Region was disputed by the federal government of Ethiopia who in November 2020 appointed Mulu Nega as the chief executive of the Transitional Government of Tigray, succeeded by Abraham Belay. From July 2021 to March 2023, Debretsion again led the Tigray Region, while Abraham Belay left the transitional government to become Ethiopia's minister of Defence.
The Tigray war was an armed conflict that lasted from 3 November 2020 to 3 November 2022. It was a civil war that was primarily fought in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia between forces allied to the Ethiopian federal government and Eritrea on one side, and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) on the other.
The Transitional Government of Tigray was a caretaker administration that was formally declared by the House of Federation of Ethiopia on 7 November 2020, in the context of a conflict between the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), in power in the Tigray Regional State and the federal government of Ethiopia. In late November 2020, the administration, headed by Mulu Nega, planned public consultation and participation in choosing new leaders at the regional and zonal level and preservation of woreda and kebele administrations. The Transitional Government left Tigray in late June 2021 during Operation Alula.
Getachew Reda Kahsay is an Ethiopian politician who is the Chief Administrator of the Interim Regional Administration of Tigray since the Office of the Prime Minister of Ethiopia announced his appointment on 23 March 2023. Before assuming power as chief administrator, he was a longtime advisor to the former president of the Tigray Region, Debretsion Gebremichael.
The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is a national human rights institution (NHRI) established by the Ethiopian government. The EHRC is charged with promoting human rights and investigating human rights abuses in Ethiopia. The EHRC states organizational independence as one of its values. In October 2021, the EHRC's rating by the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions for operation in accordance with the UN Paris Principles was upgraded from grade B to grade A.
This timeline of the Tigray War is part of a chronology of the military engagements of the Tigray War, a civil war that began in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia in early November 2020.
On 3–4 November 2020, forces loyal to the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) launched attacks on the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) Northern Command headquarters in Mekelle and bases in Adigrat, Agula, Dansha, and Sero in the Tigray Region, marking the beginning of the Tigray War. The Ethiopian federal government stated that these attacks justified the ENDF's military action against the TPLF, which, at the time the attacks occurred, held control over the Tigray Region. The TPLF described the action as "a pre-emptive strike."
The Axum massacre was a massacre of about 100–800 civilians that took place in Axum during the Tigray War. The main part of the massacre occurred on the afternoon and evening of 28 November 2020, continuing on 29 November, with smaller numbers of extrajudicial killings taking place earlier, starting from 19 November and during the weeks following the 28–29 November weekend. The massacre was attributed to the Eritrean Defence Forces (EDF) by Amnesty International, Associated Press, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC), Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Adigrat University lecturer Getu Mak.
The Adigrat massacres were mass extrajudicial killings by the Eritrean Defence Forces (EDF) that took place in and near Adigrat in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia during late 2020 during the Tigray War. These included 86 civilians killed in Zalambessa around 13 November 2020, 8–15 in Hawzen on 25 November, 80–150 at the Maryam Dengelat church near Idaga Hamus on 30 November.(more than thousand Tigreans massacred by Eritrean troops in Axum on 27 Nov 2020).
Casualties of the Tigray War refers to the civilian and military deaths and injuries in the Tigray War that started in November 2020, in which rape and other sexual violence are also widespread. Precise casualty figures are uncertain. According to researchers at Ghent University in Belgium, as many as 600,000 people had died as a result of war-related violence and famine by late 2022. The scale of the death and destruction led The New York Times to describe it in November 2022 as "one of the world’s bloodiest contemporary conflicts."
All sides of the Tigray war have been repeatedly accused of committing war crimes since it began in November 2020. In particular, the Ethiopian federal government, the State of Eritrea, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) and Amhara Special Forces (ASF) have been the subject of numerous reports of both war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The Tigray Defense Forces, colloquially called the Tigray Army, is a paramilitary group located in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. It was founded by former generals of the Ethiopian Military in 2020 to combat federal forces enforcing national government mandates in the Tigray region, culminating in 2020 with the outbreak of the Tigray War. The TDF has made use of guerilla tactics and strategies. Human rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have reported that the TDF has committed war crimes against civilians including gang rape and extrajudicial killing during their occupation of both the Afar and Amhara regions. According to the Ethiopian Ministry of Justice, TDF combatants have been found liable for upwards of 540 civilians casualties. as of 28 December 2021.
Operation Alula Aba Nega, commonly shortened to Operation Alula, was a counter-offensive during the Tigray War by the Tigray Defense Forces against the Ethiopian military and its allies in Tigray. The operation was named after Ethiopian general Ras Alula Aba Nega, who was of Tigrayan descent. The offensive was launched on 11 June 2021 and recaptured vast swaths of territory across central and eastern Tigray, including the regional capital of Mekelle.
The Humera massacre was an ethnic mass murder event carried out in November 2020 in the town of Humera in the Tigray Region of northwestern Ethiopia, next to the Sudanese border. The massacre took place during an armed conflict between the regional government of Tigray and the federal government of Ethiopia. Refugees attributed the massacre to Amhara militias, including Fano, and the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF).
The Chenna massacre was a mass extrajudicial killing perpetrated by the Tigray Defense Forces (TDF) in and around the village of Chenna Teklehaymanot in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia during the Tigray War, between 31 August and 4 September 2021.
The TDF–OLA joint offensive was a rebel offensive in the Tigray War and the OLA insurgency starting in late October 2021 launched by a joint rebel coalition of the Tigray Defense Forces (TDF) and Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) against the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF) and government. The TDF and OLA took control of several towns south of the Amhara Region in the direction of the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa in late October and early November. Claims of war crimes included that of the TDF extrajudicially executing 100 youths in Kombolcha, according to deral authorities.
This Timeline of the Tigray War is part of a chronology of the military engagements of the Tigray War, a civil war that began in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia in early November 2020.
This Timeline of the Tigray War is part of a chronology of the military engagements of the Tigray War, a civil war that began in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia in early November 2020.
The ENDF National Unity Offensive was an military offensive in the Tigray War launched by the Ethiopian military (ENDF) and pro-government forces to recapture territory in the Amhara and Afar regions being occupied by the Tigray Defense Forces (TDF). Gendarmerie regional forces and militias from Afar and Amhara had mobilized thousands of fighters and joined the offensive. The ENDF and its allies were able to push TDF forces back from Debre Sina, Amhara to Alamata, Tigray (≈400 km). The Ethiopian government announced the campaign for national unity was a success and had been completed on 23 December 2021.
During the Tigray War, the town of Wukro was damaged heavily, and was the scene of numerous killings and massacres committed by the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) and Eritrean Defence Forces (EDF). It was bombed in mid-November 2020, then shelled by artillery fire a few weeks later, resulting in heavy destruction of property and multiple civilian deaths. There was looting of public and private property, leaving shops empty and the local hospital destroyed. Occupying soldiers engaged in sexual violence, extrajudicial killings, and detention of civilians through at least March 2021. These massacres in Wukro received international attention in media articles.
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