By Michael Georgy
HAMDAYET, Sudan (Reuters) – The young coffee seller said she was divided by an Ethiopian soldier from family and friends on the Tekeze River, took down a path and was given a disturbing choice.
“He said, ‘Choose, I will kill you or rape you,'” the 25-year-old told Reuters at the Hamdayet refugee camp in Sudan where she had fled for conflict in the Tigray region of Ethiopia.
The doctor who treated her when she arrived at the camp in December, Tewadrous Tefera Limeuh, confirmed to Reuters that he had given pills to stop pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, and led her to a psychotherapist.
“The soldier … forced a gun on her and raped her,” Limeuh, who volunteered for the Sudanese Red Crescent, said the woman told him. “She asked him if he had a condom and he said, ‘why would I need a condom?’
Five aid workers for international and Ethiopian aid groups said they had received several similar reports of abuse in Tigray. The United Nations this week called for an end to sexual assaults in the region.
Among a ‘large number’ of allegations, particularly disturbing reports have emerged about people being forced to rape family members or have sex in exchange for basic supplies, the UN Office of the Special Representative for Sexual Violence in Conflict said on Thursday in said a statement.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government and the army did not immediately respond to questions from Reuters about the reports of rape. Ethiopian authorities have previously denied violations of rights and instead pointed the finger at the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the region’s former ruling party whose powers accuse it of insurgency.
“I call on all parties involved in the hostilities in the Tigray region to commit themselves to a zero-tolerance policy for crimes of sexual violence,” UN Special Representative Geraldine Boezio said in a statement. statement said.
Women and girls in refugee camps in Ethiopia appear to be particularly targeted, and medical centers are under pressure for emergency contraception and tests for sexually transmitted infections, the statement said.
Reuters could not independently verify the accounts of rape. Media was largely banned from Tigray, aid agencies struggled to gain access, and communications were down for weeks.
ABUSERS IN UNIFORM
The 25-year-old woman who spoke to Reuters said her abuser was wearing an Ethiopian federal army uniform.
The five aid workers said other women described their alleged attackers as military fighters from the Amhara region of Ethiopia or Eritrean soldiers, both attached to Abiy’s troops. Reuters could not determine the identity of the woman’s attacker.
Abiy’s spokesman, Tigray’s interim governor, regional mayor Mekelle, Eritrea’s foreign minister and Ethiopia’s army spokesman did not immediately respond to requests for comment on rape charges. Reuters could not reach TPLF representatives.
“I have no information about it,” Gizachew Muluneh, a spokesman for the Amhara region, told Reuters by telephone.
Ethiopia and Eritrea have both denied that Eritrean troops are in Ethiopia and contradict dozens of eyewitness interviews, diplomats and an Ethiopian general.
‘WHY WAS A WOMAN RAPED? ‘
At a meeting of security officers in Mekelle that was broadcast on Ethiopian state television earlier this month, one soldier spoke of abuse even after the city was captured by federal forces.
“I was angry yesterday. Why is a woman being raped in Mekelle city? It would not be shocking if it happened during the war … But women were raped yesterday and today when the local police and federal police are there, “said the soldier, who was not identified.
Local authorities did not immediately respond to attempts to comment on whether soldiers could be investigated or brought to justice.
Tewadrous, the refugee camp doctor, described two other rape cases he handled. One doctor, who said she escaped from the city of Rawyan in Tigray, told of three soldiers she identified as special forces from Amhara knocking on her door, the doctor said. When she denied them access, they broke in and assaulted her.
An aid worker in the city of Wukro told Reuters the victims told how a man was forced to kneel and watch while his wife was raped by soldiers who identified them as Eritrean.
A medical worker in Adigrat said he treated six women who had been raped by a group of soldiers and told them not to seek help afterwards. They found courage to come forward days later, but the doctor said there was no medicine to treat it.
According to a medical worker who treated both victims, one man was beaten in Mekelle after begging soldiers to rape a 19-year-old. Elshadai, charity Mekelle, said he had prepared 50 beds for rape victims.
(Additional reporting by Nairobi News Office; Writing by Andrew Cawthorne; Edited by Alexandra Zavis and Nick Tattersall)