A survivor who was raped by two fighters of Tigray Forces in Nefas Mewcha Town, Amhara State, spent two weeks at a friend’s house till she got recovered from severe bleeding.
On her way back to her aunt’s house, she was again captured by fighters of Tigray forces and sexually abused. She recounted her ordeals with the second captors.
“When one of the fighters took off my trousers, he saw blood and spat on me with a disgusted expression on his face. I had already given up on life and was contemplating suicide so I was not afraid of him. When I insulted him back, he got angry and shoved the mouth of his Kalashnikov gun into my vagina. The pain was unbearable, and I passed out. I now suffer from fistula though I am receiving medical treatment.”
Following the military offensive provoked by the terrorist Tigray Forces in the areas of Afar and Amhara states, fighters of the rebel group perpetrated unspeakable inhuman acts against civilians residing in the two states.
Since July 2021, insurgents of the terrorist enterprise massacred thousands of people, tortured, displaced and committed gang raped on women regardless of age, religious or marital status or other characteristics while the areas were under the control of the terrorist faction.
The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) conducted an investigation to the alleged human rights violations and abuses committed by all parties in the areas of Afar and Amhara states between the periods of September to December 2021.
According to the report, Tigray forces committed widespread, cruel and systematic sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) including gang rape against women of different ages; including girls and elderly women
As the report stated a 34 year-old women who was a resident of Shewa Robit Town, Semien Shewa Zone of the Amhara State was found dead in an apparent suicide, the day after she was raped.
The report further revealed another survivor of repeated gang rape by Tigray Forces in Hayk Town of this same State who was tested positive for Hepatitis-B when she sought medical treatment after government forces recaptured the area.
In Mehal Meda Town, a 20-year-old victim described being gang raped by fighters of Tigray forces in front of her 2-year-old child in her home, where she also sells coffee, after her attackers dragged her 80-year-old father and tied him to a pole outside.
“They came one after the other to rape me. As they raped me, they told me: ‘your people gang raped our women; 10 soldiers at a time. We would have been married in Church in Holy Matrimony if we had not come to avenge for our women.’ In all, 15 fighters raped me”, said a survivor repeatedly raped by Tigray forces in Dib-Bahir, Debark Woreda to the Commission.
As to the EHRC’s report, rape survivor in Yalo Woreda, Afar region said that, one of the fighters came to her house asking for her husband’s weapon. When she told him that her husband did not own any, he pulled out his knife and threatened to stab her. Afraid for her life; she gave him money in the hope that he would leave her alone. However, he took the money and raped her in front of her children.
On the other hand, the Shane fighters committed SGBV in Kemise Town, Amhara State. On November 3, 2021, they beat, and gang raped a woman during a search of her house after they learned that she was an ethnic Amhara. They also robbed cash from her home.
Moreover, in areas under their control, Tigray forces conducted house to house searches; and forced women they accused of being the wives of ENDF soldiers, Amhara Special Forces and Fano to cook for them and committed acts of sexual violence against them including gang rape.
Based on the amount of information and evidence collected by the EHRC concerning SGBV attacks of this nature, there are reasonable grounds to believe that, at least hundreds of women and girls have been victims of SGBV, said the report.
Due to the stigmatization and discrimination they face within their communities, survivors of SGBV often refrained from speaking with EHRC. As a result, EHRC believes that the magnitude of SGBV attacks is significantly higher than that of detailed in this report.
Tigray forces committed widespread and systematic sexual and Gender-Based Violence intended to demoralize, dehumanize and punish communities; often indiscriminately and sometimes in a targeted manner.
The attacks were often perpetrated in a premeditated and cruel manner including through gang rape, rape in front of family members of victims/survivors, and insertion of foreign objects into the vagina, according to the report.
Often times, these acts were committed with the knowledge of military commanders and officials of the Tigray forces who, despite pleas from communities under their control, failed to take the necessary and reasonable measures to stop violations and hold perpetrators to account. The EHRC believes the information and evidence it gathered strongly indicate a calculated and systematic use of SGBV (mostly indiscriminately but also selectively) for warfare by Tigray forces, the report stated.
BY BETELHEM BEDLU
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD THURSDAY 17 MARCH 2022
