Brutal Conflict-Related Sexual Violence Continues To This Day

A woman poses for a photograph in an undisclosed location on October 11, 2024. She told AFP that at the beginning of the conflict in Tigray in November 2020, she had been beaten, tortured and raped by seven men with different military uniforms, Ethiopian and Eritrean.The two-year war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region left hundreds of thousands people dead, more than one million still displaced and cost more than $20 billion in damage, until a peace deal in November 2022 ended the bloodshed. Among the many barbaric acts inflicted on civilians during the two-year conflict in Ethiopia’s northernmost region of Tigray, rape and sexual violence were “systematic” and used as a weapon of war, according to a study published in 2023 by the scientific journal BMC Women’s Health. Estimates of the number of rapes committed vary widely — up to as many as 120,000 — according to data compiled by the researchers, with many reluctant to report the attacks. The victims reported that most of the perpetrators were Ethiopian or Eritrean soldiers, but also militiamen from the neighbouring Amhara region. (Photo credit: MICHELE SPATARI/AFP via Getty Images)

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On July 31, 2025, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and the Organization for Justice and Accountability in the Horn of Africa (OJAH), both non-governmental organizations, published the results of an investigation into conflict-related sexual and reproductive violence (CRSV) in Ethiopia, focusing on the Afar, Amhara, and Tigray regions. The new report, entitled “‘You Will Never Be Able to Give Birth’: Conflict-Related Sexual and Reproductive Violence in Ethiopia”, is the first publication to comprehensively analyze patterns of perpetration of CRSV in the Tigray, Amhara, and Afar regions. The report shows widespread, systematic, and deliberate acts of CRSV which continue to this day.

The report makes several concerning findings in relation to the nature and scale of the use of CRSV in Ethiopia. The report, based on 515 medical records of survivors of CRSV, 602 survey responses from health workers who have treated survivors of CRSV, and 39 in-depth interviews with health workers and four focus groups with professionals who provided care to survivors, found that:

– 91% of surveyed health workers reported seeing patients who had experienced multiple perpetrator rape; medical records showed a median of three perpetrators per incident.

– 90% of surveyed health workers saw at least a few patients with unwanted pregnancy from CRSV.

– Medical records and interviews reveal that perpetrators inserted objects – stones, nails, hand-written letters with revenge plans citing previous wars – inside of survivors’ vaginas.

– 84% of health workers surveyed indicated survivors identified members of the Eritrean military as perpetrators. 73% of health workers surveyed indicated survivors identified members of the Ethiopian military as perpetrators; 51% indicated Amhara militias and Fano.

The report is the first to identify the use of the crime of forced pregnancy while in captivity, with survivors held in captivity by their perpetrators until giving birth. The report is further the most comprehensive documentation of the intent of perpetrators behind the atrocities in Tigray – the first time evidence of intent has been triangulated between medical records, health worker surveys, and interviews. According to this in-depth study, perpetrators expressed intent to prevent future Tigrayan births and exterminate the ethnic group. Many of the perpetrators were quoted to say: “Tigrayans have to be eradicated” as they were committing CRSV. The report is also the first to capture data on CRSV in Amhara and Afar, including a temporal analysis showing how the lack of atrocity prevention in Tigray led to the spread of CRSV in other parts of the country.

The report documents several heartbreaking testimonies. As a coordinator for a women’s group in Tigray was quoted in the report: “There are women here who have scars left on their bodies. There are those who have given birth unexpectedly. There are those who got pregnant unexpectedly. There was a woman whose husband [a former soldier] was not present during the war, the perpetrator, an Ethiopian soldier who knew her husband, came to her house and forced her into marriage and even had their picture taken together and hung it in her house. He got her pregnant during that time and gave her his address [so that] his unborn child could find him when he left. So, this is something that the war has brought.”

The findings of this report should trigger responses from the international community. However, as it stands, the situation is rarely making the headlines as the world is focused elsewhere. This is despite the fact that the situation in the region is deteriorating and raising concerns about a re-escalation of conflict in northern Ethiopia and surging geopolitical tensions between Ethiopia and Eritrea. The situation is further exacerbated by the drastic foreign aid cuts, which have shuttered health clinics and led to preventable deaths in Ethiopia. As the dire situation continues, victims/survivors must be put first. This means assistance to all those suffering from the consequences of the horrific CRSV perpetrated over recent years. This means investigating and prosecuting all those responsible for the crimes. This also means investing in prevention, as no money in the world can comprehensively address CRSV once perpetrated.