Rawa had just given birth to twins when the Tigray conflict broke out in November 2020
Rawa curls up on a chair, pulls her knees tight to her chest and hides her face with a large white veil as if to shield herself from the outside world.
“There were seven men who raped me,” she whispers, haltingly recounting a brutal assault shortly after the start of the two-year war in Ethiopia’s northernmost region of Tigray.
Rawa, whose name has been changed like those of the other rape survivors interviewed by AFP, had just given birth to twins when the fighting broke out in November 2020.
The conflict — pitting Ethiopian government forces, backed by regional militias and Eritrean troops, against Tigrayan rebels — killed around 600,000 people, with the warring sides accused of numerous atrocities against civilians. Read more