‘They raped me one after the other…’ – Amnesty International Report on ‘Sexual Violence and Abduction of Women and Girls in Tigray Conflict’

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OCP News Service – 14/8/21

Global: Amnesty International has published a report titled ‘‘I Don’t Know If They Realized I Was A Person’: Rape and Other Sexual Violence in the Conflict in Tigray, Ethiopia’  which categorically mentions the sexual atrocities committed on the female gender during the Tigray conflict.

“They raped me one after the other… I don’t know if they
realized I was pregnant. I don’t know if they realized I was a
person.” A Tigrayan woman who was raped by multiple perpetrators in Baaker, western Tigray, in November 2020, according to the report.

Citing the report, Dr Romina Istratii, a specialist on Ethiopian Affairs (SOAS University of London) and the Creator of Project dldl/ድልድል made the below statement.

“It deeply pains me and sickens me to read the accounts of victims of sexual violence in Tigray about the inhumane treatment they endured in the hands of soldiers and militias – some of the victims being pregnant women, young virgins or women with small children, but these are factual experiences that must be heard and treated with the solemnity they require. Concrete action is needed to hold those responsible accountable. And since the evidence on the use of SGBV in war-time suggests that militants tend to use rape as a weapon of war once they have the approval from above, a close and independent investigation is needed at the higher echelons to identify who allowed this to happen at this widespread scale. The least that the victims and the survivors deserve is to bring the perpetrators, across ALL ranks, to justice.

Dear women of Tigray, we cannot possibly understand the scale of violence, humiliation, pain and loss you have experienced in this war, but we believe you and we shall stand by you as women and as human beings in the process of healing and seeking justice – even if we can do so currently only in thought and spirit. May we be allowed, by the grace of God, to support you more substantively in the near future”.

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Headquartered in the US, Amnesty International is one of the worlds leading non-governmental organizations (NGO) on human rights.

Source:
OCP News Service