Mass rape, forced pregnancy and sexual torture in Tigray amount to crimes against humanity - report
(and the FUCKING, PATRIARCHAL, MISOGYNISTIC, HATE-FILLED WAR ON WOMEN continues apace)
WARNING: THIS REPORT IS HORRIFYING TO TRY TO READ
Mass rape, forced pregnancy and sexual torture in Tigray amount to crimes against humanity – report
Warning: this article contains graphic and distressing testimony and images (I cannot link to the images, and some of them are truly horrific)
Research documents ‘horrific and extreme’ attacks by Ethiopian and Eritrean forces and warns that impunity has meant such atrocities are expanding to new regions
Tess McClure
Thu 31 Jul 2025 09.00 EDT
Hundreds of health workers across Tigray have documented mass rape, sexual slavery, forced pregnancy and sexual torture of women and children by Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers, in systematic attacks that amount to crimes against humanity, a new report has found. The research, compiled by Physicians for Human Rights and the Organization for Justice and Accountability in the Horn of Africa (OJAH), represents the most comprehensive documentation yet of weaponised sexual violence in Tigray. It reviewed medical records of more than 500 patients, surveys of 600 health workers, and in-depth interviews with doctors, nurses, psychiatrists and community leaders. The authors outline evidence of systematic attacks designed to destroy the fertility of Tigrayan women and call for international bodies to investigate the crime of genocide.
The attacks described by healthcare workers are extreme in their brutality, often leaving survivors with severe, long-term injuries. “Having worked on gender-based violence for two decades … this is not something I have ever seen in other conflicts,” said Payal Shah, a human rights lawyer and co-author of the report. “It is a really horrific and extreme form of sexual violence, and one that deserves the world’s attention.”
Two women stand with their backs to the camera. One has her arm around the other’s waist
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A rape survivor (left) is helped by an assistant at a safe house in Mekelle, February 2021. She has difficulties walking after being attacked by Eritrean soldiers. Photograph: Eduardo Soteras/AFP/Getty Images
Survivors treated by health professionals ranged from infants to elderly people. The youngest was less than a year old. More than 20% of health workers said those they treated for sexual violence included very young children (1-12 years); and 63% treated children under the age of 17. Dr Abraha Gebreegziabher, chief clinical director of Ayder hospital in Tigray, told the Guardian his hospital treated thousands of rape survivors, at times admitting more than 100 a week. “Some [trends] stand out during the war,” he said. “One is gang raping. Second is the insertion of foreign bodies, including messages and broken rocks or stones … Then, the intentional spread of infection, HIV particularly,” he said. “I am convinced, and see strong evidence, that rape was used as a weapon of war.” In June, the Guardian revealed a pattern of extreme sexual violence where soldiers forced foreign objects – including metal screws, stones and other debris – into women’s reproductive organs. In at least two cases, the soldiers inserted plastic-wrapped letters detailing their intent to destroy Tigrayan women’s ability to give birth.
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An X-ray image showing a nail clipper inserted inside a uterus.
In attacks designed to destroy fertility, foreign objects such as these nail clippers were inserted into women’s wombs, usually after rape. Photograph: Ximena Borrazas
The new research included interviews with a number of healthcare workers who independently reported treating victims of this kind of attack. Many of the survivors said soldiers expressed their desire to exterminate the Tigrayan ethnicity – either by destroying Tigrayan women’s reproductive organs, or forcing them to give birth to children of the rapist’s ethnicity. One psychologist who treated a teenage girl said: “Her arm was broken and became paralysed when the perpetrators tried to remove the Norplant contraceptive method inserted in her upper arm, and this was aimed to force pregnancy from the perpetrator. [They said]: ‘You will give birth from us, then the Tigrayan ethnic[ity] will be wiped out eventually.’” Other women were held at military camps, some for months or years, and gave birth to the children of their assailants while in captivity.
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https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/jul/31/mass-rape-forced-pregnancy-sexual-torture-in-tigray-ethiopian-eritrean-forces-crimes-against-humanity-report