He shot me within the right 3 times. He shot me within the leg 3 times. He left when he heard an attempt from outside. This chilling account is from a young Ethiopian who told how she lost a hand defending herself against a soldier who tried to rape her.
The man had also wanted to force her grandfather to possess sex together with her. The 18-year-old – whom we didn’t name to preserve her identity – was admitted to hospital within the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia for quite two months recovering from her ordeal. The conflict in Tigray which erupted in early November 2020 when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched an offensive to overthrow the ruling TPLF party within the region after its fighters captured federal military bases – shattered his dreams and people of the many. from his classmates.
Most of them, alongside other families from their village, fled to the mountains, even after Abiy, the Nobel Peace lottery winner, declared victory following the capture of Tigray’s capital, Mekele, by federal forces on 29 last November. this is often because the safety forces launched an operation to seek out the TPLF members who refused to surrender, which has led to reports of great human rights abuses against Tigray residents. Authorities deny the accusations.
The girl and her grandfather decided to remain at their range in the town of Abiy Addi, about 60 miles west of Mekele because it had been difficult for them to travel far. On December 3, the teenager said that a soldier, wearing an Ethiopian uniform, entered her home demanding to understand where the Tigray fighters were.
After searching the house and finding nobody, he ordered them to lie on a bed and commenced shooting around them. Then he forced my grandfather to possess sex with me. My grandfather got very angry and that they started fighting, she said. The soldier threw the old man outside and shot him within the shoulders and thigh. Then he returned to her and told her that he had killed him.No one can prevent it now. begin your clothes, said the soldier, consistent with the girl. I begged him to not roll in the hay, but he hit me repeatedly.
Their fight continued for several minutes, although she was disoriented by the blows and within the end, he became so angry that he pointed the gun at her and shot her a minimum of sixfold within the hand and legs. He left when he heard an attempt from outside, he said. Fortunately, his grandfather was still alive albeit unconscious, and for 2 days they remained injured within the house, too scared to hunt help.
THERE IS NO JUSTICE
The teen’s testimony supports concerns about alleged rapes in Tigray voiced by Pramila Patten, the UN envoy on sexual violence in conflict. He said there have been disturbing reports of individuals allegedly forced to rape members of their circle of relatives, under threats of imminent violence. It was also reported that some women were forced to possess sex in exchange for basic goods, while medical centers reported a rise in demand for emergency contraception and STI testing, which is usually an indicator. of sexual violence in conflicts, he added. Three opposition parties in Tigray said that extrajudicial killings and gang rapes became daily practices and also cite the case of a father forced to rape his daughter at gunpoint.
A doctor and a member of a women’s rights group who wishes to stay anonymous reported in January that between them that they had registered a minimum of 200 girls under the age of 18 in several hospitals and health centers in Mekele. who they said that they had n been violated s.Most of them said the perpetrators wore Ethiopian army uniforms and were later warned to not seek medical help. they need bruises. Some are even gang-raped. One was raped every week. She doesn’t even recognize herself. And there are not any police, therefore there’s no justice, said the doctor.
We have also heard similar stories of rape in other parts of Tigray. But thanks to transport problems, we couldn’t help them. it’s very sad to acknowledge a women’s rights activist. Another doctor who works at a hospital in Mekele recently said that five or six women each day come to the hospital trying to find HIV drugs and emergency contraception associated with alleged rapes. Weyni Abraha, who belongs to the Tigray women’s rights group Yikono Enough and was in Mekele until the top of December, told the that she believes rape is getting used as a weapon in war.
many ladies were raped in Mekele. this is often being done intentionally to interrupt the morale of the people, threaten them and make them abandon the fight, he said. Ethiopian army chief Birhanu Jula Gelalcha denied such allegations. Our defense forces don’t violate. they’re not criminals. they’re government forces. And government forces have ethics and rules of engagement,” he told the BBC. Ataklti Haile Selassie, the new acting mayor of Mekele, said the figures cited by human rights groups were vastly exaggerated.
The government recently sent a task force to Tigray to further investigate the allegations, including members of the health and women’s ministries and therefore the attorney general’s office, who established that rapes were committed, though their full report has yet to was published. Last week, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said 108 cases of rape had been reported within the past two months across Tigray, but admitted that “local structures like the police and health centers where victims of sexual violence would normally attend report such crimes are not any longer operational.
I WANTED TO BE AN ENGINEER
The was contacted by a doctor about the case of the teenager from Abiy Addi after having her hand amputated. She and her grandfather told him how two days after the attack they were found by Eritrean soldiers who were searching the world, although both Ethiopia and Eritrea deny the latter’s involvement within the Tigray conflict.
They said the Eritreans had attended their wounds and took them with Ethiopian troops, who successively transferred them to Mekele because the Abiy Addi hospital was closed. The grandfather has already recovered from his injuries, but his granddaughter still needs treatment after the amputation. His right leg remains during a cast. She spoke to the from her single bed, crying over her lost dreams. In her last academic year before the war began, her goal was to travel to the school to review engineering and pursue a career that might allow her to worry for her grandfather, who raised her since the death of her mother. Her grandfather, next to her bed, reassured her while sobbing How can it’s possible?
