ADIGRAT, Ethiopia (Reuters) – The young mother was trying to get home with food for her two children when she says soldiers pulled her out of a minibus in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, alleging she was overloaded.
It was the beginning of an 11-day ordeal in February, during which she said she was repeatedly raped by 23 soldiers who forced nails, a rock and other objects into her vagina and threatened her with a knife.
Doctors showed Reuters the blood-stained stone and the two 3-inch nails they said had been removed from his body.
The 27-year-old woman is among the hundreds who have reported being subjected to terrible sexual violence by Ethiopian and allied Eritrean soldiers after fighting broke out in November in the mountainous northern region of Ethiopia, according to tell the doctors.
Some women were held captive for extended periods, days or weeks at a time, said Dr. Fasika Amdeselassie, the top public health official in the government-appointed interim administration in Tigray.
“Women remain in sexual slavery,” Fasika told Reuters. “Authors need to be investigated.”
Rape reports have been circulating here for months. But Fasika’s statement, based on women’s stories, marks the first time an Ethiopian official – in this case a senior regional health official – has been charged with sexual slavery in connection with the Tigray conflict.
In addition, eight other doctors from five public hospitals told Reuters that most rape victims described their attackers as Ethiopian government soldiers or Eritrean troops. Doctors said it was more common for women to report sexual violence by Eritrean soldiers.
Eritreans have been helping Ethiopia’s central government fight the region’s former ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), in the conflict affecting the Horn of Africa nation.
Taken together, the descriptions draw the most detailed picture to date of sexual violence against women in Tigray and the alleged involvement of the military in it.
Most of the people interviewed for this article declined to be identified. They said they feared reprisals, including possible violence, from soldiers guarding hospitals and cities.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed acknowledged in a speech to parliament on March 23 that “atrocities were being committed by raping women” and promised that the perpetrators would be punished. He did not identify the alleged perpetrators.
He then said for the first time that Eritrean soldiers had entered the conflict in Tigray in support of the Ethiopian government after the TPLF attacked military bases in the region in the early hours of 4 November. The Ethiopian government had previously denied this, and the Eritrean government still does not recognize the presence of its troops. The TPLF was the dominant power in the central government when Eritrea waged a bloody border war with Ethiopia a generation ago.
Neither the Ethiopian nor the Eritrean governments responded to Reuters’ questions about specific cases raised by women and their doctors, nor about the accusation of sexual slavery. Civilian or military prosecutors have not announced any charges against any soldiers. However, officials from both countries stressed that their governments have zero tolerance for sexual violence – a point from Abiy spokeswoman Billene Seyoum said the prime minister recently reiterated in discussions with leaders military.
The alleged sexual violence has attracted international attention.
Billene said the United Nations, the African Union and the human rights commission appointed by the state of Ethiopia have been authorized to conduct joint investigations into alleged abuses by all parties to the conflict. This includes the “criminal clique,” he said, referring to the TPLF.
An Ethiopian military spokesman and the head of a government task force on the Tigray crisis did not respond to phone calls or text messages seeking comment. Reuters was unable to reach the military leaders of either country.
Asked about reports that Eritrean troops have committed rapes in Tigray and are keeping women in sexual slavery, the country’s intelligence minister, Yemane Gebremeskel, accused TPLF activists of “training” sympathizers “to create false witnesses.” .
“All invented stories, which are alien to our culture and laws, are distributed to cover up the crimes of the TPLF that started the war,” he told Reuters in a written response.
Reuters was unable to contact a TPLF spokesman.
FILES OF ABUSE
Fasika, the health official, said at least 829 cases of sexual assault have been reported in the five hospitals since the conflict began in Tigray.
These cases were probably “the tip of the iceberg,” Fasika said. Rape is not reported here in Ethiopia because it has a huge stigma. In addition, most of the region’s sanitation facilities are no longer in operation and travel between cities remains dangerous, he said.
Most of the women who have presented are pregnant or have suffered serious physical injuries resulting from the rapes, Fasika said.
Reuters interviewed 11 women who said they had been raped by soldiers from Eritrea, Ethiopia or both. Four said they were abducted, taken to military camps and raped in groups, in some cases alongside other women. The women did not know the names of the camp, but said they were located near Mekelle and the towns of Idaga Hamus, Wukro and Sheraro.
Five other women said they were detained in abandoned fields or houses for up to six days. And two said they were raped at their home.
Reuters was unable to verify its accounts independently. Still, they all told similar stories of being beaten and brutalized. Healthcare providers confirmed that the 11 women’s injuries were consistent with the events they described and showed Reuters ’medical history for three of the women detailing their conditions.
Health care providers also shared details of nine other cases of sexual assault, including the tests of two 14-year-old girls.
Although the Ethiopian government declared victory over the TPLF in November, fighting continues in some areas and medical workers say new violations are being reported every day in the region’s health facilities.
“This is done to dishonor women, to break their pride,” a doctor at Ayder Referral Hospital in Mekelle said, citing the brutality of the attacks and the humiliation of the victims. “It simply came to our notice then. Rape must punish Tigray. “
“TELL MY STORY”
The 27-year-old mother said Eritrean uniformed soldiers pulled her out of a minibus on Mekelle Road in the town of Adigrat on February 6. They tied her up and marched her through fields to a bush camp, he said. After eleven days of rapes and beatings, she said, the soldiers forced nails, cotton, plastic bags and a rock into her vagina and left her alone in the bush.
The villagers found her unconscious and took her to a nearby hospital.
He said he was still bleeding from serious internal injuries and could not control his urine, walk without a crutch or sit for long periods. He broke a leg, he said.
He also described another type of pain: while in the hospital, he has no way to talk to his 4-year-old son and his 6-year-old daughter because the Eritrean soldiers grabbed his cell phone. He had left the children with his mother to look for food and never returned. At the time, the family had less than a week of bread.
“I don’t know anything, whether they are dead or alive,” he said. “The enemy destroyed my life.”
A 32-year-old mother in Mekelle told Reuters that soldiers took her out of a minibus on the same road in late February. They were dressed in Ethiopian uniforms, he said, but spoke with an Eritrean accent and had a facial scarification typical of the neighboring country. She said her 12-year-old son was shot dead in front of her, then taken to a camp where she was kept with other captive women and raped repeatedly for 10 days.
“Tell my story,” he said. “This is happening to the women out there right now. I want this to end with me.”
A 28-year-old cleaner said soldiers took her from a street in Mekelle on the afternoon of Feb. 10 and took her to a camp outside a military base where she was raped by more than ten men in Ethiopian uniforms or eritreus.
Wiping away the tears, she said during her two-week trial, soldiers wet her with alcohol and made fun of her while assaulting her. He escaped when his captors were distracted by gunfire, he said.
SHOT TO RESIST
The government has set up a working group separate from the human rights commission to investigate reports of sexual violence. Its chief, Mebrihit Assefa, said the body includes representatives from the regional health office, the prosecutor general’s office and the federal police.
The working group plans to create five centers where rape survivors can report to law enforcement and receive medical and psychosocial support.
“Our prosecutors (and) police officers are there to investigate all crimes committed, including sexual violence,” said Awol Sultan, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office.
He did not answer questions about the women who claimed they were raped during captivity, or whether prosecutors were in contact with the Eritrean or Ethiopian military. The results of the criminal investigations will be made public on an unspecified date, he said.
Abera Nigus, head of Tigray’s justice office, said the judicial process is likely to be complicated because most courts do not operate in Tigray and many rape victims cannot identify their assailants.
Knowing that the rapists are still at large has also discouraged women from seeking help, doctors said.
Many of the women who sought treatment in hospitals had vaginal and anal tears, sexually transmitted diseases and injuries that made them incontinent, said hospital doctor Ayder, an obstetrician-gynecologist. The doctor shared notes of 11 cases the hospital had treated with women raped by soldiers.
A woman had been raped in a group on three different occasions, according to hospital notes.
Another was five months pregnant when she was raped, the notes indicate. Two 14-year-old girls were sexually assaulted in front of their families. A girl’s hand and foot were amputated.
She had been shot for resisting her assailant.
Reports from Katherine Houreld. Written by Silvia Aloisi. Edited by Alexandra Zavis and Julie Marquis