It has been revealed that the armies of Ethiopia and Eritrea systematically committed collective sexual violence, torture, forced pregnancy, and destruction of reproductive ability against women and children during the civil war. This is said to constitute crimes against humanity and genocide as defined by international human rights organizations.
According to the British Guardian on the 31st (local time), international human rights organizations, including Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), disclosed circumstances of weaponized sexual violence through a joint report released that day, based on surveys of 600 medical professionals, over 500 patient treatment records, and interviews with local leaders and survivors.
According to the report, the youngest survivor among the victims was less than 1 year old, and 63% of medical staff reported experience treating children under 17, with more than 20% treating children under 12. At Ayder Hospital, a representative hospital in the northern Tigray region of Ethiopia, there were cases of over 100 sexual violence victims hospitalized each week during the war.
Perpetrators used methods such as inserting foreign objects like nail clippers, rusty screws, and stones into women's genitals or deliberately infecting them with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to destroy their reproductive ability. Many women victims were repeatedly raped while being confined for months to years in military camps and had to give birth to the perpetrators' children.
Some soldiers said, "You will bear our children. The Tigray people will ultimately go extinct," openly revealing their intent for ethnic extermination. In fact, the report included statements from perpetrators aimed at depriving women of their reproductive capacity or forcing them to bear children of the ethnic group of their rapists, along with evidentiary materials.
Collective sexual violence in public places, forced acts in front of families, and sexual violence against women during menstruation were conducted in a way that deliberately violated social taboos in the Tigray region, and it was confirmed that many survivors were abandoned by their husbands or ostracized from their communities.
Payal Shah, an international human rights lawyer and co-author of the report, noted, "I have been studying gender-based violence in conflict areas for 20 years, but this is the first time I have seen such horrific and extreme cases," emphasizing that the international community must immediately classify this issue as a crime of genocide and respond accordingly.
The report particularly pointed out that even after the war ended, the same types of sexual violence continue in nearby regions such as Afar and Amhara. Due to the suspension of international aid and the closure of humanitarian facilities, many victims are still unable to receive mental and physical treatment and are not provided even basic medical services in refugee camps.
The report also warned that "there has been no legal accountability for the perpetrators, which exposes victims to secondary victimization." Local human rights activists expressed concern that "if perpetrators are not held accountable, the atrocities will be repeated, and conflicts will spread to other regions."
The Tigray conflict began in November 2020 and has continued for several years, with armed clashes and human rights violations persisting even after the ceasefire in 2022. The report emphasized that "this violence goes beyond mere wartime sexual violence and is an organized means aimed at ethnic extermination, underscoring the urgent need for strong intervention from the international community."