😔 In this episode of Wars That Don't Pay, @UnderPeriodismo
and Amnesty International explain the genocidal
war in Ethiopia. Armed groups, the Ethiopian army, and
Eritrean forces are razing entire villages, executing civilians, and
using torture and sexual violence against women and girls as weapons
of war. The country is experiencing famine, and 21 million people are
in need of humanitarian aid.
😔 En este episodio de Guerras que no garpan
@UnderPeriodismo y Amnistía Internacional explican la guerra
genocida en Etiopía. Tanto los grupos armados, como el ejército
etíope y las fuerzas eritreas arrasan pueblos enteros, ejecutan
civiles y usan la tortura y la violencia sexual contra mujeres y
niñas como arma de guerra. El país atraviesa una situación de
hambruna y hay 21 millones de personas que necesitan ayuda
humanitaria.
😔
Tigray, Ethiopia: Rape as
a Weapon: “A
Christian Womb Should Never Give Birth”
In the last two
years, there is an ongoing devastating war in the Amhara and Western
Oromia regions of Ethiopia. The atrocities in these wars has gotten
limited coverage but recent reports by the US
State Department, Amnesty
International and Human
Rights Watch indicate that the casualties and
destruction of civilian infrastructure needs international attention.
According to the
World
Report 2025 by Human Rights Watch, fighting
between the Ethiopian military and militias in the Amhara region
resulted in hundreds of civilian deaths and injuries, including
attacks against refugees and civilian infrastructure such as
hospitals. The government renewed a sweeping state of emergency for
the Amhara region, but its provisions were applied throughout
Ethiopia; mass arrests persisted once it expired.
And now, the storm
clouds gather once more. Despite the Pretoria
Peace Agreement, and call for peace from the
Tigray, Amhara and Oromia political forces, the Abiy Ahmed regime
appears intent on returning to war which now seems to include Eritrea
too. In his parliamentary address on 10/28/2025, the Prime Minister
of Ethiopia has made it clear that war is inevitable. Multiple
signals indicate that the fragile peace is unraveling:
War
mongering in Parliamentary speech: Prime
Minister Abiy’s recent “appeals” to diplomats, religious
leaders, and elders to caution Tigray against entering into conflict
(despite Tigray’s repeated call for the full implementation of the
Pretoria peace agreement), delivered during his address to the
Ethiopian Parliament, is seen as highly alarming. It echoes the
rhetoric he used in his speech to parliament just before the 2020
war, where he made similar statements days before declaring war. This
is widely regarded as evidence of an impending war.
Precision
Drone Threats Over Tigray:
Following a private statement, reported by reliable media outlets, by
Prime Minister Abiy referencing tactics “like Israel used on Iran,”
surveillance drones have reappeared in Mekelle, threatening the lives
of Tigray’s civilian leadership and undermining any confidence in
peaceful resolution. This has been admitted by the Prime Minister of
Ethiopia in his parliamentary address on 10/28/2025,
Dangerous
Brinkmanship with Eritrea: The
government’s inflammatory threats toward Eritrea, and Asmara’s
military posturing in response, risk plunging the region into a
broader conflagration with devastating consequences for the Horn of
Africa. Repeated references to the imminence of war with Eritrea
including the statement “war can break out at any time” was said
by the Prime Minister of Ethiopia in his parliamentary address on
10/28/2025,
Ethnic
Profiling and Arbitrary Detentions:
Echoing the early days of the 2020 genocide, young Tigrayans are
being rounded up in Addis Ababa—held in mass encampments without
cause or due process. This is not law enforcement; it is ethnic
persecution.
Failure to
provide justice and accountability for industrial-scale looting and
atrocities: There is a growing
appetite to use Tigray resources to fund the war on Tigray. In the
2020-2022 war, the invading forces looted Tigray and destroyed
everything they couldn’t take with them. This is documented in a
new investigative report by The
Sentry, which accuses Eritrean leaders of
orchestrating industrial-scale looting and atrocities during and
after the war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. The Eritrean Defense
Forces (EDF) allegedly trafficked gold, antiquities, and human beings
while committing brutal acts such as gang rape, torture, and
mutilation. The report estimates that $75–$80 million in gold is
diverted annually to the black market from EDF-controlled areas.
Similar accusations have been made against the Ethiopian forces.
Both Ethiopia and Eritrea
have increased their rhetoric about war and their prowess. Ethiopia
warns that Eritrea is rebuilding its military and continuing to
destabilize neighboring countries, raising fears of renewed conflict.
Eritrea is leveling the same counter accusations. This back and forth
is now at the level of the top government leaders. This is causing
unease and tension with the people of Tigray and the region. The
Sentry urges international actors, including the UN Security Council,
to impose targeted sanctions and take swift action to prevent further
escalation. We do too.
We, implore the United
States and members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to
lead the world in urgently calling for peace in Ethiopia and
protecting the innocent people from being unjustly annihilated. The
Tigray people, after the recent genocidal war, need protection,
justice and peace. The people in the Amhara and Western Oromia
regions need peace and right to live without fear and drone attacks.
The millions of people in these war prone regions need a global power
willing to stand between them and annihilation.
We would like to join
hands in making a call upon the US and the UN Security Council to:
• Demand
immediate compliance with the Pretoria Cessation of Hostilities
Agreement (COHA) with international monitors on the ground and access
for humanitarian agencies restored without obstruction. This might
require the US to reassume the leadership role that its envoy to the
Horn of Africa, Ambassador Hammer and his predecessors played in
making the COHA possible.
• Condemn
the use of drones for political intimidation or assassination and
make clear that further escalation will trigger diplomatic and
economic consequences.
• Sanction
individuals/entities leading the perpetuation of war crimes against
international law.
• Lead
a multilateral peace initiative with the UN and EU, not after
conflict reignites, but now, before the first shot is fired. The
current descent to war could be prevented if the US re-assumes its
leadership in coordinating the COHA implementation and monitoring
since the African Union has forgotten its role as stipulated in the
agreement.
Silence, in the face of a
second genocide, will not be remembered as neutrality. It will be
remembered as complicity. Let history show that when the people of
Ethiopia cried out for protection, America and the international
community stood with them.
“Two years later,
in 2020, civilians in Ethiopia found themselves in an armed conflict
that was referred to as one of the worst atrocities of the 21st
century – mass killings, mass displacements, sexual violence, and
unmatched polarization. The war that began in Tigray exposed not only
the dangerous reality in Ethiopia, it also provoked all of us to ask
far-reaching questions
about humanity’s future.”
The war in
Ethiopia's northern Tigray region between 2020 and 2022 was the
deadliest in the world at the time. 600,000 people died, many as a
result of the hunger blockade used by the Ethiopian government to
isolate the rebellious region. Today, Tigray has been forgotten,
overshadowed by Ukraine, Gaza, and Sudan. To break this oblivion,
women's activist Meseret Hadush from Tigray was to be awarded the
Bremen Solidarity Prize on Monday evening in Bremen.
Bremen
Mayor Andreas Bovenschulte: "Sexual violence against
girls and women is one of the most abhorrent things we repeatedly
observe in wars and civil wars. Alongside the physical wounds, which
in the best case scenario eventually heal, there are always much
longer-lasting psychological traumas. That's why it's so essential to
provide support to victims and to support healing on both levels to
the best of our ability. This is precisely what Meseret Hadush and
her organization are doing in an exemplary manner. In doing so, they
are also making an important contribution to the long-term
reconciliation of society in Ethiopia."
Even the
journey from Ethiopia to Germany for the award ceremony was risky,
reports one of her friends. In Ethiopia, both former warring parties
are now trying to "destroy her organization." Meseret
Hadush founded the women's rights organization Hiwyet , which cares
for the victims of sexualized war crimes in the Tigray war—the
estimated 120,000 women who suffered brutal rape during the two years
of war.
Meseret Hadush
experienced the war firsthand as a pianist and music lecturer at the
university in Tigray's capital, Mekelle, where the musician, born in
the city of Adigrat, graduated in 2001 and then stayed. Even as a
music student and later as a music teacher, she made a name for
herself as a campaigner for girls' rights against inhumane
traditions, such as forced marriage to much older men. With the
"Tigray Idol" competition, which she co-founded , she
sought an alternative to cultural norms that hinder girls' free
artistic development.
Peace at the
expense of the victims
The war that
began in November 2020 changed everything in Tigray. Mekelle was
first occupied by the Ethiopian army, then recaptured by Tigray's
rebels, and finally returned to government control until both sides
made peace in 2022. However, a widespread accusation is that this
peace agreement is a fraternization of war criminals at the expense
of the victims.
In the midst of
the war, Meseret Hadush mobilized fellow activists for women's
self-help. This led to the creation of the Hiwyet Tigray Charity
Association after the war ended in 2023. Hiwyet means "healing"
in the Tigrinya language, and that's precisely what it's about: "a
world in which every woman and girl in Tigray can live a life free
from fear, violence, and inequality," as the organization
explains.
As Hadush
explained in an interview , Hiwyet has so far been able to help
around 6,000 survivors of sexualized war crimes in Mekelle, between
the ages of 5 and 80. The organization documents crimes and provides
medical care. 200 mothers have received initial support to help them
reintegrate into society. Hiwyet also provides educational work on
other topics, including women's health and child marriage.
"The
psychological impact is significant," says Hadush. "The
public, myself included, lives in trauma, often accompanied by denial
and avoidance of reality."
Hadush is
repeatedly subjected to hostility. In 2023, she was briefly arrested
in Addis Ababa while trying to organize a workshop there. Hiwyet has
also not been spared police attacks. Renewed tensions in Tigray this
year have reduced the willingness of the diaspora to donate. In
Germany, where sexual violence has been recognized as a reason for
asylum for refugee women from Tigray, Meseret Hadush now hopes to be
heard more widely.
