Hamdayet, Sudan -- More evidence of sexual violence being used as a deliberate weapon of war is emerging from Ethiopia's northern Tigray region, where an armed conflict has been raging for months.
Women are being gang-raped, drugged and held hostage, according to medical records and testimonies from survivors shared with CNN. In one case a woman's vagina was stuffed with stones, nails and plastic, according to a video seen by CNN and testimony from one of the doctors who treated her.
CNN has spoken with nine doctors in Ethiopia and one in a Sudanese refugee camp who say they've seen an alarming increase in sexual assault and rape cases since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched a military operation against leaders in Tigray, sending in national troops and fighters from the country's Amhara region. Forces from neighboring Eritrea are participating in the military campaign on the side of Ethiopia's government, as CNN has previously reported.
Any organization needs a sound strategy to compete successfully, manage the performance of its activities and strengthen its prospects for long term success. The Eritrean political forces realized the importance of crafting a grand strategy and assessed their present situation, where to go from here of mismanagement and how to move towards a competitive advantage outcompeting the one-man rule system in Eritrea.
Ethiopian refugees celebrate the 46th anniversary of the Tigray People's Liberation Front at Um Raquba refugee camp, Sudan, on Feb. 19.
Photographer: Hussein Ery/AFP/Getty Images
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for an end to fighting in the Tigray region of Ethiopia and an international investigation of reported atrocities there.
In a statement Saturday, Blinken appealed for a cessation of hostilities between Ethiopia and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front and the removal of forces from neighboring Eritrea and Ethiopia’s Amhara region. The African Union and regional partners should then address the situation, he said.
Almost four months of conflict in Tigray have left thousands dead and forced millions to flee. Amnesty International last week accused Eritrean troops of massacring civilians in the Ethiopian town of Axum, killings that the independent Ethiopian Human Rights Commission is also investigating.
“We strongly condemn the killings, forced removals and displacements, sexual assaults, and other extremely serious human rights violations and abuses by several parties that multiple organizations have reported in Tigray,” Blinken said. “We are also deeply concerned by the worsening humanitarian crisis.”
Unrest emerged after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office in 2018 and began consolidating power under his new Prosperity Party, sidelining the TPLF, which had been the pre-eminent member of the ruling coalition for decades.
Ethiopia’s War Leads to Ethnic Cleansing in Tigray Region, U.S. Report Says
An internal U.S. government report found that people in Tigray are being driven from their homes in a war begun by Ethiopia, an American ally — posing President Biden’s first major test in Africa.
As a campaign we actively supported the United Nation’s Commission of Inquiry (COI) Eritrea Report in 2016 that found Isaias Afwerki and the PFDJ regime guilty of crimes against humanity, committed in Eritrea and state sponsored slavery. Whilst we continue to demand the end of slavery in Eritrea and support peace in our region, today we vehemently oppose the war in Tigray and Isaias’ involvement. Eritrea has no parliament or rule of law and the ruling party has no mandate to govern or represent Eritrea.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The United States said all soldiers from Eritrea should leave Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region “immediately.”
A State Department spokesperson in an email to The Associated Press cited “credible reports of looting, sexual violence, assaults in refugee camps and other human rights abuses.”
“There is also evidence of Eritrean soldiers forcibly returning Eritrean refugees from Tigray to Eritrea,” the spokesperson said.
The statement reflects new pressure by the Biden administration on the government of Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous country and the anchor of the Horn of Africa, and other combatants as the deadly fighting in Tigray nears the three-month mark.
An internal U.S. government report found that people in Tigray are being driven from their homes in a war begun by Ethiopia, an American ally — posing President Biden’s first major test in Africa. 