Issue No. 198

No justice for women in Tigray

The population of Tigray has faced unimaginable suffering since the outbreak of conflict in November 2020. During the Tigray War, women and girls bore the brunt of many of the crimes committed by Eritrean, Ethiopian, and Amhara forces, with systemic sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) used as a weapon of war. While the fighting has subsided since the Pretoria agreement in November 2022, there has been little accountability. The situation remains dire for many survivors, and the challenges facing them demand immediate attention.

The Tigray War saw thousands of harrowing cases of women and girls being subjected to sexual violence, torture, and exploitation. A partial investigation by a UN Commission into alleged human rights violations during the conflict highlighted the “staggering scale” of SGBV violence, and crimes of a “cruelty beyond comprehension.” The Commission revealed that SGBV was employed as a deliberate tactic by Eritrean forces, and others, to terrorise, degrade, and humiliate civilians. Survivors range from young, underage girls to older women. One group responsible for some of the most extreme SGBV crimes were Amhara forces, including the nationalist militia ‘Fano,’ now embroiled in yet more violence in the Amhara region. Many Tigrayan survivors said the Amhara fighters assaulted them to ‘Amharise’ them in a twisted attempt to erase their ethnic heritage. Some fighters even tortured Tigrayan women, intending to render them infertile. 

Tigray’s Interim Administration's latest estimate of SGBV survivors during the conflict stands at 120,000 women and girls in the non-occupied areas of the region alone. This shocking figure does not encompass the thousands of survivors in other areas affected by the war, including the Amhara and Afar regions. It also does not include the likely thousands of survivors still in western Tigray, occupied by Amhara and Eritrean forces. And nor does it account for those still subjected to sexual enslavement. But numbers alone cannot begin to encompass the scale of suffering inflicted. 

Despite the conclusion of fighting, survivors in Tigray still face immense barriers to justice and recovery. Few perpetrators have faced any consequences. This is despite Article Four of the Pretoria agreement stipulating that all parties shall “condemn any act of sexual and gender-based violence.” Although the agreement was inked on 4 November 2022, its implementation has proven challenging and lacklustre. Indeed, the very day it was signed, exactly two years after the war’s outbreak, Tigrayan women were raped by Eritrean forces in north-eastern Tigray. Tigray’s Health Bureau recorded 852 cases of sexual assaults in centres for survivors in November and December 2022. Again the true number is likely far higher. Eritrean and Amhara forces continue to occupy swathes of Tigray, and the suspension of humanitarian aid to the region since March 2023 has exacerbated dire humanitarian conditions. 

SGBV survivors require immediate comprehensive support to begin their physical and emotional recovery. Among the numerous issues facing these women in Tigray is the lack of health professionals in the region. Alongside the widespread destruction of health facilities during the conflict, there are few doctors and health professionals qualified to care for victims of gender-based violence. In addition to the bodily injuries often inflicted, many survivors grapple with post-traumatic stress disorder and clinical depression, urgently needing clinical support and psychological counselling. 

In December 2021, the UN Human Rights Council established the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia, a collaborative investigation with the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission. This Commission, and other accountability mechanisms, have made little progress, so far failing to adequately address the human rights violations of the war. The relative silence of many of Ethiopia’s international partners is also deeply troubling. Despite initial international pressure, any sense of urgency appears to have diminished. Relief that the intense fighting has concluded has dampened any push for genuine accountability.

This absence of accountability risks destabilising an already fragile Ethiopia. Failure to hold perpetrators accountable not only prolongs suffering but also emboldens those responsible. Fano has since replicated its campaign of displacement and violence, albiet to a lesser extent, in the Oromia and Benishangul-Gumuz regions. 

In July 2023, women across Tigray rallied in demonstrations, protesting their plight alongside the occupation of western Tigray and aid suspension. They demanded justice for survivors of SGBV and called for thorough investigations into human rights violations. The protesters also called for the full implementation of the Pretoria agreement, including the withdrawal of occupying forces and the restoration of pre-conflict regional boundaries.

The dire circumstances faced by women and girls in Tigray demand swift and unified action. The international community, Ethiopian authorities, and humanitarian organisations must now collaborate to address gender-based violence, and pursue justice and a path towards healing and recovery for survivors. Bringing survivors into decision-making concerning accountability mechanisms and their own support would be an important first step. The failure to do so not only prolongs the suffering of Tigrayan women but risks compromising fundamental principles of humanity and justice.

By the Ethiopian Cable team