Tigrayans fleeing famine, IDP camp in Soqota, Amhara Region, May 2022, VOA (Public Domain)
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Are the victims and survivors of genocide in Tigray condemned to suffer in silence, their voices unheard by the world? Are the authorities—in Tigray, in Addis Ababa, and internationally, closing the door to truth-telling, and trapping the Tigrayan people in silences, lies and further victimization?
The war in Tigray, Ethiopia, from November 2020 to November 2022 has exacted a human toll—from massacre, hunger, disease, and on the battlefield—that matches or even surpasses Gaza, Sudan, or Ukraine. In Gaza and Sudan, victims are crying out to be heard and reliable data are hard to find. In Tigray, the information is all available. But it’s being erased.
Human traumas of the war have been assiduously and sensitively documented by Tigrayans and those who work with them.
The compilation of testimonies by Birhan Gebrekirstos and Mulu Mesfin, Tearing the Body, Breaking the Spirit: Women and Girls’ Rape Stories from the Tigray War, provided compelling, visceral accounts of the utter cruelty inflicted on Tigrayan women and girls during the war. The stories they recount are from the eight months when the Ethiopian National Defense Force and the Eritrean Defense Force occupied Mekelle and the major towns of the region, inflicting a reign of terror. The words ‘rape’, ‘sexual violence’ and even ‘genocide’ fail to convey the meaning of the acts, that strip away the personhood of the victim.
The book was published in 2023 and the authors no Read more…