In a new report, Amnesty International has revealed horrifying details about how hundreds of girls and women were subjected to genital mutilation, sexual slavery and gangraped by Ethiopian soldiers.
About 63 rape survivors were interviewed for the report. The matter is already being probed by Ethiopian law enforcement officials, with 25 soldiers charged and three others convicted, reported Daily Mail.
_NEW REPORT_ TW: Rape
— Amnesty International (@amnesty) August 11, 2021
Our report reveals how sexual violence incl. gang rape & sexual slavery have been used by forces aligned to the Ethiopian govt as a weapon of war to inflict lasting damage on Tigrayan women & girls since the #Tigray conflict began.https://t.co/72VBp7DSRA
Amnesty's secretary general Agnes Callamard said, "It's clear that rape and sexual violence have been used as a weapon of war to inflict lasting physical and psychological damage on women and girls in Tigray."
According to Callamard, hundreds have been brutally treated. The human rights activist shared that the scale and severity of these crimes are shocking. They amount to war crimes, and must be stopped, she said. She wants the Ethiopian government to take immediate action to stop the soldiers from engaging in sexual violence, as per Amnesty International.
Since November, Northern Ethiopia has been in a violent state. It was around that time that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed had reportedly sent soldiers to Tigray to overthrow the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF).
Troops from Eritrea, government soldiers as well as security forces and militia fighters from the Amhara region in Ethiopia have been accused of rape. Almost 30 rape survivors said that they were sexually assaulted by Eritreans alone. Other survivors said that Eritreans and Ethiopians had teamed up to commit the crimes.
One 21-year-old, who was held for 40 days, said, "They raped us and starved us. There were too many who raped us in rounds."
Twelve women claimed that they were raped in front of their family. Two survivors said that shrapnel, gravel and nails were shoved into their vaginas. One survivor, who was four months pregnant, recalled how three men entered her room in the evening. They gestured to her to be quiet or they would kill her. Then they raped her in turns.
Ethiopia's women's minister Filsan Abdullahi Ahmed said earlier this year that rape had taken place in Tigray. On Tuesday, Ahmed said that it depended on the law enforcement officials to find out who was responsible for the crimes, and to determine the scale of the horrifying issue.
