By Black Star News
Photos: YouTube\Wikimedia Commons
A damning new report, obtained with the help of health workers in Tigray, documents the alleged mass torture, rape, forced pregnancies, and sexual slavery purportedly taking place now in Ethiopia.
The report, assembled by the Physicians for Human Rights and the Organization for Justice and Accountability in the Horn of Africa (OJAH), is said to chronicle the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war in Tigray. The research examines the records of 600 health professionals, over 500 patients, along with extensive interviews with psychiatrists, doctors, nurses, and leaders in the community.
The writers of the report, allege that their evidence points to systemic attacks devised to harm the fertility of Tigrayan women–and have issued a call for international authorities to investigate. The alleged attacks recounted are horrific in their barbarity.
On author of the report explained.
“Having worked on gender-based violence for two decades … this is not something I have ever seen in other conflicts,” said Payal Shah. “It is a really horrific and extreme form of sexual violence, and one that deserves the world’s attention.”
The report says the among the victims are very young children. 63 percent of the children treated were 17 years old. Some were between the ages of 12 to 1.
The chief clinical director of Ayder hospital in Tigray, Dr Abraha Gebreegziabher, said Ayder hospital had treated thousands of rape victims, sometimes as much as 100 a week.
“Some [trends] stand out during the war,” Gebreegziabher 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.”
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