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'Like I wasn't a person': Ethiopian forces accused of systematic rape in Tigray
Related: Ethiopia: “I don’t know if they realized I was a person”: Rape and sexual violence in the conflict in Tigray, Ethiopia (Amnesty International)
Also: Amnesty reports widespread rapes ‘with impunity’ in Tigray (Associated Press)
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Source: The Guardian
‘Like I wasn’t a person’: Ethiopian forces accused of systematic rape in Tigray
Mutilation, slavery and torture of women and girls detailed in accounts published by Amnesty, in what organisation says could amount to war crimes
Emmanuel Akinwotu, West Africa correspondent
Wed 11 Aug 2021 06.01 BST
Ethiopian government forces have been systematically raping and abusing hundreds of women and girls in the current conflict in Tigray, according to a new report from Amnesty International.
Adding to a growing body of evidence that rape is being used as a weapon of war in the northern region of Ethiopia, Amnesty’s research offers a snapshot of the extent of the crimes in an area where communications with the outside world have been deliberately restricted by federal authorities.
The report comes as Ethiopia’s government this week called on “all capable Ethiopians” to join the military to stop resurgent forces from the Tigray region “once and for all”, in an apparent abandonment of its unilateral ceasefire in June.
The war in Africa’s second-most populous country has risked destabilising the Horn of Africa region since it broke out in November, when the prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, a Nobel peace laureate, declared war on the regional government, controlled by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which had ruled Ethiopia for almost 30 years.
The report, based on the accounts of 63 Tigrayan women and medical professionals, details how women have been routinely subjected to mutilation, gang rape, sexual slavery and other forms of torture by members of Ethiopia’s army, the Ethiopian National Defence Force; the Eritrean Defence Forces, which are allied to Ahmed’s government; and Amharan militia fighters as the Tigray conflict continues, said Amnesty.
-snip-
Mutilation, slavery and torture of women and girls detailed in accounts published by Amnesty, in what organisation says could amount to war crimes
Emmanuel Akinwotu, West Africa correspondent
Wed 11 Aug 2021 06.01 BST
Ethiopian government forces have been systematically raping and abusing hundreds of women and girls in the current conflict in Tigray, according to a new report from Amnesty International.
Adding to a growing body of evidence that rape is being used as a weapon of war in the northern region of Ethiopia, Amnesty’s research offers a snapshot of the extent of the crimes in an area where communications with the outside world have been deliberately restricted by federal authorities.
The report comes as Ethiopia’s government this week called on “all capable Ethiopians” to join the military to stop resurgent forces from the Tigray region “once and for all”, in an apparent abandonment of its unilateral ceasefire in June.
The war in Africa’s second-most populous country has risked destabilising the Horn of Africa region since it broke out in November, when the prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, a Nobel peace laureate, declared war on the regional government, controlled by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which had ruled Ethiopia for almost 30 years.
The report, based on the accounts of 63 Tigrayan women and medical professionals, details how women have been routinely subjected to mutilation, gang rape, sexual slavery and other forms of torture by members of Ethiopia’s army, the Ethiopian National Defence Force; the Eritrean Defence Forces, which are allied to Ahmed’s government; and Amharan militia fighters as the Tigray conflict continues, said Amnesty.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/aug/11/like-i-wasnt-a-person-ethiopian-forces-accused-of-systematic-in-tigray
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Source: Associated Press
Amnesty reports widespread rapes ‘with impunity’ in Tigray
By CARA ANNA
August 11, 2021
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Dozens of women have described shocking sexual assaults by Ethiopian soldiers and allied forces in the country’s Tigray conflict, says an Amnesty International report published Wednesday, and its researcher calls it striking how the perpetrators appeared to act without fear of punishment from their commanders.
“All of these forces from the very beginning, everywhere, and for a long period of time felt it was perfectly OK with them to perpetrate these crimes because they clearly felt they could do so with impunity, nothing holding them back,” Donatella Rovera told The Associated Press.
She would not speculate on whether any leader gave the signal to rape, which the report says was intended to humiliate both the women and their Tigrayan ethnic group. In her years of work investigating atrocities around the world, these are some of the worst, Rovera said.
More than 1,200 cases of sexual violence were documented by health centers in Tigray between February and April alone, Amnesty said. No one knows the real toll during the nine-month conflict, as most of the health facilities across the region of 6 million people were looted or destroyed.
-snip-
By CARA ANNA
August 11, 2021
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Dozens of women have described shocking sexual assaults by Ethiopian soldiers and allied forces in the country’s Tigray conflict, says an Amnesty International report published Wednesday, and its researcher calls it striking how the perpetrators appeared to act without fear of punishment from their commanders.
“All of these forces from the very beginning, everywhere, and for a long period of time felt it was perfectly OK with them to perpetrate these crimes because they clearly felt they could do so with impunity, nothing holding them back,” Donatella Rovera told The Associated Press.
She would not speculate on whether any leader gave the signal to rape, which the report says was intended to humiliate both the women and their Tigrayan ethnic group. In her years of work investigating atrocities around the world, these are some of the worst, Rovera said.
More than 1,200 cases of sexual violence were documented by health centers in Tigray between February and April alone, Amnesty said. No one knows the real toll during the nine-month conflict, as most of the health facilities across the region of 6 million people were looted or destroyed.
-snip-
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/africa-180f41945ae512e8170ca05b0cc65540
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