Ethiopia War In Tigray: Eritrean Soldiers Accused Of Rape Despite Peace Deal
Tricia 
Ethiopia’s government signed a peace deal with forces from the northern Tigray region last November, in a bid to end a brutal two-year civil war. But aid groups and locals have told the media that attacks on civilians in particular, sexual assaults on women have continued.
On the day Ethiopian government officials shook hands with their rivals from Tigray to make peace, both sides smiling while cameras witnessed the moment Letay spent the night hiding under a bridge with rounds of mortar shells landing and exploding all around her. She was alone in a part of north-east Tigray and had just survived being raped by an Eritrean soldier.
“After it happened, I was unconscious for a long time before I regained consciousness. I had to hide myself until they left.” We have changed Letay’s name and those of the other rape survivors who shared their stories with the BBC to protect them from stigmatisation and retribution.
During the two-year conflict in northern Ethiopia the systematic rape of Tigrayan women by Ethiopian soldiers, as well as their allies from neighbouring Eritrea and militia groups, has been documented by the United Nations, human rights organisations and journalists.
Forces from Tigray have also been accused of sexually assaulting women in the Amhara region as they made a push towards Ethiopia’s capital. For two years, from November 2020, the two sides in the civil war fought for control of Tigray. The death toll could be in the hundreds of thousands. There was hope that after the peace agreement signed in November, the assaults on civilians would stop.
Women, health workers and aid organisations have told the media that they did not. “It happened to me twice. What have I done wrong? It seemed like I wished for it.” Letay says she had been raped before, in January 2021, by two Eritrean soldiers - a third one refused. “The two of them did what they wanted before asking the third one to do the same, except he said no.
He said: ‘What will I do with her? She is already a corpse lying around.'” After the first time she was raped, Letay sought medical and psychological help, joining a women’s support group for survivors. On the day of the peace deal Letay had rushed out to help a young girl who had also been raped before she was assaulted too.
It is difficult to know the true number of sexual assaults committed during the war. Victims are often scared to speak out while telecommunications had been cut off during the fighting. According to data from the official Tigray Health Bureau in November and December 2022 - after the peace deal was signed, 852 cases were reported in centres set up to help survivors.
