The conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, which erupted in November 2020 between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front and a coalition of Ethiopian federal forces, Amhara regional militias, and Eritrean troops, quickly devolved into one of the most brutal and under-reported humanitarian crises of the decade. At the center of this violence was a gendered campaign of terror: widespread and deliberate sexual and reproductive violence (SRV) targeting Tigrayan women and girls. This violence was not incidental to the conflict but formed a strategic axis of ethnic cleansing, deployed through the systematic destruction of women’s bodies, reproductive autonomy, and societal roles.
As Ethiopian and Eritrean troops advanced into Tigrayan towns and villages, women became targets of extreme brutality. Survivor testimonies collected in displacement camps and medical clinics describe a pattern of sexual violence marked by rape, gang rape, forced impregnation, sexual slavery, genital mutilation, and sterilization. These acts followed military incursions with haunting regularity, particularly in places like Humera, Adigrat, and Shire. Women were often told during their assaults that they were being “punished” for their ethnicity and that their wombs would be “cleansed” of Tigrayan blood – a chilling articulation of intent that was repeated in numerous survivor accounts. Read more…
This is a powerful and truthful report.