| Types | voluntary association  |
|---|---|
| Aim | women's rights |
| Location | Tigray Region |
| Country | Ethiopia |
Yikono (Tigrinya for enough [1] [2] ) is a grassroots women's rights group based in Tigray Region in Ethiopia that is opposed to gender-based violence. [3]
The creation of Yikono was triggered by a November 2019 town hall meeting in Addi Daero in which a woman spoke to the audience about a rape by a policeman 14 years earlier. Two other women claimed at the same meeting that the policeman had had sex with them, promising to marry ethem. A protest march to support the victims of violence against women was held in Addi Daero, stimulating social debate through Tigray Region. Mekelle youths organised a similar march in Mekelle, the capital of Tigray Region, calling for government and NGO actions to prevent violence against women. An online social media campaign together with the march evolved into Yikono, meaning enough in Tigrinya. [1]
Co-founders of Yikono include Weyni Abraha, Tsidena Abadi and Helen Tedros. [3] [4] Yikono participants include both women and men. [1]
Yikono aims at gender equality by creating awareness of violence against women and by helping women at risk to re-establish their lives and become financially independent. [4]
Yikono campaigning is mostly carried out in Tigrinya, the main language spoken in Tigray Region and a major language of Eritrea, discussing sexual harassment and sexual violence issues in the context of the local culture. [1]
During the COVID-19 pandemic in Ethiopia, Yikono helped to establish emergency shelters for vulnerable women. [4] One shelter, for up to 50 women and children, was set up on 27 April 2020 by Yikono in cooperation with Mekelle University, the Tigray branch of Organisation for Social Services, Health & Development (OSSHD) and Midre'Genet Elderly Care Centre. As of 9 May, thirteen women and eight children were staying at the shelter. The women were commercial sex workers, cleaners and cooks working in bars and hotels who were unable to pay their rent due to a state of emergency in Tigray Region that banned bars and night clubs. [3]
In February 2021 during the Tigray War, Weyni Abraha of Yikono was interviewed by BBC News on sexual violence in the Tigray War, which she argued was being used as a weapon of war. [2] She stated,
Many women were raped in Mekelle. This is being done purposely to break the morale of the people, threaten them and make them give up the fight.
— Weyni Abraha, February 2021, on BBC News [2]
The Tigray Region, officially the Tigray National Regional State, is the northernmost regional state in Ethiopia. The Tigrai Region is the homeland of the Tigrayan (Tegaru), Irob people and Kunama people. Its capital and largest city is Mekelle. Tigray is the fifth-largest by area, the fourth-most populous, and the fifth-most densely populated of the 11 regional states.
Mekelle, or Mekele, is a special zone and capital of the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Mekelle was formerly the capital of Enderta awraja in Tigray. It is located around 780 kilometres (480 mi) north of the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, with an elevation of 2,254 metres (7,395 ft) above sea level. Administratively, Mekelle is considered a Special Zone, which is divided into seven sub-cities. It is the economic, cultural, and political hub of northern Ethiopia.
Tigrayans are a Semitic-speaking ethnic group indigenous to the Tigray Region of northern Ethiopia. They speak the Tigrinya language, an Afroasiatic language belonging to the Ethiopian Semitic branch.
Mekelle University is a higher education and training public institution located in Mekelle, Tigray Region, Ethiopia, 783 kilometers north of Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa. Mekelle University is one of the largest public universities in Ethiopia. It has seven colleges, eight institutes, and more than 90 undergraduate and 70 postgraduate programs. The student intake capacity of Mekelle University has reached 31,000 or 10% of Mekelle's population.
There have been several studies concerning women in Ethiopia. Historically, elite and powerful women in Ethiopia have been visible as administrators and warriors. This never translated into any benefit to improve the rights of women, but it had meant that women could inherit and own property and act as advisors on important communal and tribal matters. As late as the first part of the 20th century, Queen Menen, consort of Emperor Iyasu IV, had a decisive role in running the Ethiopian Empire. Workit and Mestayit regents to their minor sons have been held responsible for their provinces. They owed their rights to landed property because of a special type of land tenure that expected tenants to serve as militia to overlords, irrespective of gender. In 1896, Empress Tayetu Betul, wife of Emperor Menelik II, actively advised the government and participated in defending the country from Italian invasion. Prominent and other landowning women fought against the second invasion in 1935–41. With the assistance of European advisors, women in the ensuing period were kept out of the army and politics, even as advisors. Instead, they were restricted to family and household work of raising children and cooking. With a steady increase in female representation in education, they have started to undertake nursing, teaching, and other similarly supportive roles. Over the 2018–2019 period, their gradual participation in state politics has been increasing at a steady pace.
Gebru Asrat is an Ethiopian politician, former president of Tigray Region (1991–2001), and one of the top leaders of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) and the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) until around 2000, when he founded a new party, Arena Tigray.
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. The war 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.
Arena Tigray or Arena Tigray For Democracy and Sovereignty is an Ethiopian political party based in the Tigray Region and participating in the Medrek coalition federally.
Filsan Abdullahi Ahmed, also called Filsan Abdi, is an Ethiopian activist and politician from the Somali Region. She is a founder of the Nabad project, a satellite television station for promoting communication and peace in Somali Region and between the Somali and Oromo communities.
Sexual violence in the Tigray War included, according to the United Nations Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten, people forced to rape family members, "sex in exchange for basic commodities", and "increases in the demand for emergency contraception and testing for sexually transmitted infections".
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 regional forces 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.
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.
In the late hours of 7 January 2022, the Ethiopian Air Force (ETAF) carried out an airstrike on a camp for internally displaced persons set up in Dedebit Elementary School, located in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Between 56 and 59 people were killed in the attack, and at least 30 others were left injured.
Adi Daero, is a town in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia located at 977 km north of Addis Ababa and 278 km northwest of Mekelle along the highway which runs from Shire to Sheraro to Humera. The town is also the administrative center of the La'ilay Adiyabo woreda (district).
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