A woman poses for a photograph in an undisclosed location in Shire on October 11, 2024. She was originally from Welkait and 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 of people dead, more than one million still displaced and cost more than $20 billion in damage, until a deal in November 2022 was meant to end 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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November 4, 2025, marked five years since the beginning of the war in Tigray, Ethiopia. The war was to end with the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement in November 2022. However, while the agreement silenced the bullets, atrocities continue to this day, including conflict-related sexual violence. Five years after the start of the war, a dozen non-governmental organizations (NGOs) published a joint letter calling for justice for all victims/survivors of the atrocities in Tigray and across the country.
The Tigray War began on November 4, 2020, when “Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered the Ethiopian Defense Forces (EDF) to militarily engage with the Tigray Regional Paramilitary Police and militia loyal to the Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF) in what he stated was a response to multiple attacks by the Tigray security forces on the EDF North Command base in Mekelle and other military camps in Tigray Region.” A few days later, evidence of ethnic-based targeting and the commission of mass atrocities began to emerge. These crimes include murder, rape, sexual violence, including sexual slavery and forced pregnancy, persecution, and other inhumane acts. These violations were predominantly committed against Tigrayan civilians by Ethiopian and Eritrean forces, as well as allied militia groups. The exact numbers of victims are not known, with reports suggesting some 600,000 – 800,000 fatalities, in addition to thousands of victims/survivors of other crimes. In November 2022, the Government of Ethiopia and the TPLF signed the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement. However, atrocities in the region continue. Furthermore, similar atrocities are being reported across the country with no end in sight.
The atrocities in Ethiopia have been documented by several actors, including the United Nations’ International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia and Ethiopia’s own Human Rights Commission, which classified them as war crimes, crimes against humanity, and, in Western Tigray, ethnic cleansing. As the NGOs reported, the violations included “the deliberate targeting of civilians, indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas, widespread sexual and gender-based violence — including sexual and reproductive violence with the explicit intent to destroy Tigrayan women’s reproductive capacity and the intent to destroy the Tigrayan ethnicity — starvation used as a weapon of war and forced displacement.”
Despite the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement, the Ethiopian government has not delivered on justice and accountability for the crimes, with impunity prevailing and leaving victims/survivors without redress. The mechanisms that were established by international and regional bodies have been closed down prematurely. The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights’ Commission of Inquiry on Tigray closed quietly without releasing any public report on its findings. The International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia closed after two years and without finishing analyzing the collected evidence. In September 2023, the Commission published its final report to the U.N. Human Rights Council, finding violations of international law and crimes committed in Tigray, as well as Amhara, Afar and Oromia. The Commission made it very clear that “the conflict in Tigray has not ended, with Eritrean troops and Amhara militias engaging in ongoing violations. Past and current abuses in these four regions demand further investigation.” The Commission also criticized the Government of Ethiopia, which has failed to effectively investigate violations and has initiated a flawed transitional justice consultation process.
As the NGOs indicated, “More than two years after Ethiopia’s Ministry of Justice endorsed transitional justice recommendations, violence continues to escalate across the country, eroding hopes for peace and rendering accountability increasingly elusive — including the implementation of both the transitional justice framework and the [Cessation of Hostilities Agreement].” They further explained how conflict continued to intensify in Oromia, with credible reports indicating senior officials ordering extrajudicial killings, illegal detentions, forced disappearances, prolonged prison and forced conscription. Furthermore, “In Amhara, violence between an ethnic-based militia and the federal government has killed hundreds of civilians, including through extrajudicial and summary executions and drone strikes by federal forces.”
The ongoing atrocities and the lack of legal avenues for justice and accountability leave victims/survivors hopeless. Furthermore, with the dire situation in the country, they lack access to comprehensive health services and humanitarian relief.
Marking the five years since the beginning of the Tigray War, the NGOs called upon the international community to renew and support independent monitoring, strengthen civilian protection, ensure unhindered humanitarian access and protection for internally displaced persons, ensure survivor-centered justice, and pursue accountability at multiple levels, among others. Without these steps, especially on justice and accountability, the atrocities are doomed to be repeated. As we have seen this across all atrocity crimes globally, impunity begets further atrocities. With this knowledge, inaction cannot be justified.