👉 Courtesy:The
Irish News, by Allan Preston, December 10, 2025
Trócaire spoke to The
Irish News in Ethiopia about efforts to combat ongoing epidemic of
gender-based violence and sexual assault against women and girls.
For Ethiopian women, the
upheaval of war has brought with it a sustained epidemic of
gender-based violence (GBV) and sexual assault.
During a visit to the
Tigray region with Irish aid agency Trócaire, The Irish News
received a briefing about the sheer scale of the inhuman cruelty that
has taken place.
Some of the distressing
details caused a stunned silence in the room, but those working to
help survivors say the reality of the problem must not be ignored.
According to a report from
Tigray regional authorities, 60% of over 480,000 women surveyed had
suffered at least one form of GBV.
Over 150,000 had survived
rape while 12% of the sexual violence survivors were “forcefully
enslaved by their perpetrators”.
Among the GBV categories,
gang rapes were the most frequently reported – as 70% of survivors
were willing to report the number of perpetrators.
A “significant number”
of sexual violence survivors (12%) were “subjected to sexual
slavery for weeks….and were raped or gang raped on a daily basis”.
Another common occurrence
was for people being forced to witness sexual assaults on their
family members.
Other details are too
graphic to repeat in print, but resulted in severe reproductive
health issues for victims and long-term trauma.
Another consequence was
family breakdown, including rejection and blame from husbands, while
the destruction of medical services meant that over 80% of GBV
survivors said they had no access to medical and psychological
support.
While the reality is
impossible to fully understand, there is also hope with a programme
funded by the Irish government and Trócaire to create safe spaces
and new economic opportunities for women.
“It’s difficult to
express in words what women in Tigray have been through,” she said.
“Because it’s not a
single experience they’ve had, and it still continues. Even after
the stop of the war, the forms of violence are increasing.
“They have passed
through sexual violence during the war, they lost their children and
husbands.
“They also witnessed
dead bodies, they observe mass killings. They’re in need of
psycho-social support as well as healthy intervention to recover.”
She said a breakdown of
law and order has created a feeling there are no consequences for
crimes against women and girls.
“There is also a new
practice and new challenge the women of Tigray have been suffering
due to bad learnings during the war – gang rapes, rape by their
family members, being killed by family members,” she said.
“Because everybody is
not in (the right) state of mind. So they are just practicing the bad
things.
“What makes it worse is
that there is no legal enforcement…but even if people are killed or
raped, there is no justice.
“It’s like giving
permission for those who are committing crimes.”
With the
support of the Irish government, 16 safe spaces for women and girls
have now been established across Tigray.
“It is a
space where it helps them to heal from the trauma they have. There
are multiple services like individual counselling, group
psycho-social counselling, other healing activities,” Tsega said.
Another major
aspect is to help women regain their livelihood, through saving
schemes and business support such as keeping chickens, goats and
bees.
“During the
first time they visit us, they are in trauma. Bad things happen to
them. Now they start to have a new hope.
“They are
having a new hope to start life again. So for every woman you talk to
in the safe spaces, they have their own healing stories.”
The Irish News
was invited to one of the safe spaces in the town of Agula.
In one room, a
group of women share their experiences with each other as well as
trading their skills like knitting.
Next door is a
creche, allowing mothers the chance to take part in counselling or
time to themselves while a savings groups also encourages them to
grow their financial independence.
One woman,
Lugeberhwet (35), spoke to the Irish News about how the group has
helped her since the death of her son Mahom (15) during the war.
“Initially I
heard about the safe space, I was suffering from the trauma of the
war. I was not in a peace of mind so I decided to come here and heal
from the feeling that I had,” she said.
She said the
group has now helped her “to feel peaceful inside.”
While not
experiencing GBV herself, she said helping other women through this
kind of trauma has helped with her own grief.
Tsega
commented: “This helped her to look after the other kids. So this
centre helped her to heal from that.
“She also
shared that the other women who passed through similar experiences
are also coping with new life and hope.”
😔 Eva,
a Spanish woman, was kidnapped, raped, and tortured for seven days by
three Algerian Muslims in Alicante, Spain, burned with a blowtorch
and left with second and third-degree burns over her body.
Eva:
“[One
attacker] destroyed my eye, punched my ear, and cut my hair with a
knife [before setting me on fire.]”
Still
hospitalized and awaiting reconstructive surgery, Eva spoke publicly
through tears: “I want to tell my story so no one else goes through
this.”
Police are
hunting the suspects, one reportedly fled before officers arrived.
Eva María's
harrowing testimony after surviving seven days of torture and rape in
Alicante: "They tied me up with cable ties and burned me with a
blowtorch."
"They tied
me to a chair": the chilling testimony of a former student of
the autism center accused of abuse.
From her
hospital bed, in excruciating pain, Eva María, the woman kidnapped,
raped, and brutally tortured for seven days by three Algerian men in
a squat in the San Juan XXIII neighborhood of Alicante, connected
live with Nacho Abad on the program ‘En boca de todos’ and
bravely described the terrible ordeal she suffered: “They tied me
up with cable ties and started burning me with a blowtorch, and the
next day the rapes began.”
After being
rescued by the National Police and spending several days in the
hospital, Eva María, the young woman brutally tortured and raped for
a whole week, told us that her health is still fragile and that she
will need surgery in a few days because half of her body is burned:
“I’m still in bad shape and they’re going to transfer me to the
burn unit.”
Nacho Abad
wanted to know the details of what happened, and with great courage,
Eva María explained how she arrived at the drug den in the San Juan
XXIII neighborhood of Alicante, who took her there, and how she
experienced the terrible ordeal: “I got there through an
acquaintance who told me that some friends from San Juan wanted to
meet me… We went into the house, and when I realized what was
happening, I went to the bathroom, took a few puffs of a marijuana
joint, and felt dizzy. When I came out, she wasn't there, and one of
them punched me, shattering my eye… They took me upstairs to the
bedroom; there were some cardboard boxes on the floor. They tied me
up with cable ties and started burning me with a blowtorch, and the
next day the rapes began…”
Nacho Abad,
horrified by the cruelty of what happened, wanted to know how the
victim felt: “I wanted to die from the very first moment. I didn't
know why someone could do that without knowing me, just because. It
went on for a week… On the last day, I was convulsing on the floor,
and his intention was to put me in the car and leave me in an open
field… If it hadn't been for the girl who arrived… The same woman
who brought me brought her. I told her, 'Get out of here, look what
they've done to me.' When the police arrived, they found me
convulsing, almost dead…”
Mariana, Eva
María's mother: “I can't even imagine it, they are unforgivable.”
José María
Fernández, a reporter for ‘En boca de todos,’ and Mariana, Eva
María's mother, showed tremendous courage to make the live
connection in the neighborhood where she grew up and where her
daughter was brutally raped and tortured.
Mariana tried
to catch her breath because she had broken down while listening to
her daughter's terrible testimony from the… "They are
unforgivable," she said. Deeply affected, she explained the pain
she feels and denounced a young woman named Penelope, who was the one
who took Eva Maria to the drug den where the three Algerians tortured
her mercilessly. According to reports, the young woman is in hiding
and no one has been able to locate her. Apparently, this Penelope was
also the one who took the other young woman to the apartment and
alerted the police that Eva Maria was being held captive.
Mariana
explained that she was born and raised in the San Juan XXIII
neighborhood, a neighborhood where her daughter nearly died and where
currently 90% of the apartments are occupied by Algerian and Moroccan
citizens.
The harrowing
nature of Eva Maria's testimony deeply moved Nacho Abad and everyone
present, and the presenter did not hide his sorrow: "I don't
recall such a harrowing testimony, I don't recall such a courageous
testimony as this woman's from a hospital bed... We should reflect on
what kind of society we are, on empathy." "What we feel and
what kind of insecurity we're experiencing... It leaves me feeling
numb."
This is the
torturer and rapist from Alicante: he sells drugs and has his own
army of Algerians.
A neighbor from
the building where Eva María was kidnapped and brutally raped for 7
days, has broken the neighborhood silence to tell us about the
Algerian man who has the San Juan XXIII neighborhood in Alicante
terrified: an aggressive man, who sells drugs and has his own army.
🔥
Civil War is Brewing: Muslims Film Themselves Attacking a Spaniard
– Citizens Now Attacking the Muslims
👉 Courtesy:New LinesInstitute, by Klara Vlahčević Lisinski, Washington D.C., October
14, 2025
The genocidal
war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, which erupted in November
2020 between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front and a coalition
of Ethiopian federal forces, Amhara regional militias, and Eritrean
troops, quickly devolved into one of the most brutal and
under-reported humanitarian crises of the decade. At the center of
this violence was a gendered campaign of terror: widespread and
deliberate sexual and reproductive violence (SRV) targeting Tigrayan
women and girls. This violence was not incidental to the conflict but
formed a strategic axis of ethnic cleansing, deployed through the
systematic destruction of women’s bodies, reproductive autonomy,
and societal roles.
As Ethiopian and Eritrean
troops advanced into Tigrayan towns and villages, women became
targets of extreme brutality. Survivor testimonies collected in
displacement camps and medical clinics describe a pattern of sexual
violence marked by rape, gang rape, forced impregnation, sexual
slavery, genital mutilation, and sterilization. These acts followed
military incursions with haunting regularity, particularly in places
like Humera, Adigrat, and Shire. Women were often told during their
assaults that they were being “punished” for their ethnicity and
that their wombs would be “cleansed” of Tigrayan blood – a
chilling articulation of intent that was repeated in numerous
survivor accounts.
SRV committed by armed
combatants in Tigray is characterized by its scale, coherence,
brutality, and unmistakable ethnic and gendered intent. The female
body was weaponized as a battleground to extinguish the reproductive
capacity of an ethnic group and shatter the cohesion of its
communities. In countless cases, rape was paired with physical
mutilation that left survivors infertile, disabled, or suffering
chronic pain. Forced pregnancies were not only tolerated by occupying
forces; they were part of the message. In many instances, access to
emergency contraception or abortion was deliberately denied, and the
denial of post-rape care was used as a tactic to deepen harm.
The consequences for
survivors extend well beyond the battlefield. Many women now face
lifelong trauma compounded by stigma, rejection by their families, or
forced parenthood of children born of rape. In Tigrayan culture, as
in many others, sexual violence carries immense social stigma,
further isolating victims and silencing their stories. The
psychological damage of these crimes is deepened by the lack of
medical care, social services, or avenues for justice. Women and
girls displaced by the conflict, both internally within Ethiopia or
across borders, suffer quietly, navigating chronic pain and shame in
isolation.
The New Lines Institute
report “Conflict-Related Sexual and Reproductive Violence in
Tigray” identifies a clear geographic and temporal correlation
between the advance of Ethiopian and Eritrean forces into Tigrayan
territories and the occurrence of SRV. As these forces moved into new
areas, reports of mass rape, genital mutilation, and forced
sterilization surged. This pattern suggests that SRV was not merely a
byproduct of war, but a strategic tool employed to achieve military
and political objectives.
The use of SRV in Tigray
aligns with patterns observed in other conflicts where rape has been
recognized as a tactic aimed at destroying an ethnic group, such as
in Bosnia and Rwanda, demonstrated that this was not an isolated
atrocity but rather a symptom of gendered power structures that
persist in conflicts worldwide. Despite this, international justice
systems remain ill-equipped to address gendered genocidal strategies
effectively. The slow pace of legal recognition, under-resourced
mechanisms for documenting SRV, and the lack of survivor-centered
accountability processes hinder efforts to bring perpetrators to
justice. The Tigray case illustrates how mass sexual violence can be
systematically deployed with the intent to destroy an ethnic group,
yet remain underrecognized as an act of genocide, despite
overwhelming qualifying evidence.
Impunity for these crimes
cannot be separated from the way women’s experiences are often
sidelined in post-conflict justice and policy. In Ethiopia, there is
little political will to prosecute SRV cases, especially those
implicating state actors. Survivors who come forward risk harassment,
retaliation, or re-traumatization. Without international intervention
and survivor-centered frameworks, most perpetrators will not be held
to account – and most survivors will go unheard.
Addressing this requires
more than legal innovation. It requires reimagining justice and
recovery through a gendered lens. That begins with recognizing that
SRV is not a side effect of war, but a method of warfare that
specifically targets women’s bodies, choices, and futures.
Reparative systems must prioritize not only legal accountability but
also comprehensive physical and psychological care. Ensuring that
survivors receive comprehensive and sustained support – not only in
the immediate aftermath but throughout their long-term recovery –
must be a key priority of any meaningful transitional processes.
Efforts to rebuild Tigrayan society must involve survivors at the
center, not on the margins.
Documentation is another
critical front. The report notes that real-time evidence gathering
was hampered by blackouts, displacement, and stigma. Many survivors
did not – or could not – seek help in time for their injuries to
be recorded, while others feared the social cost of speaking. Moving
forward, civil society organizations need the tools and funding to
document SRV safely and confidentially, even during conflict.
Survivors must be empowered, not retraumatized, by this process.
Prevention, too, requires
gendered foresight. SRV does not erupt in a vacuum; it is preceded by
warning signs: dehumanizing propaganda, militarization of civilian
spaces, impunity for prior sexual crimes, and nationalist ideologies
that fuse ethnic purity with control over women’s reproduction.
These indicators must be integrated into early warning systems and
peacekeeping mandates. Gender-based atrocity should never again catch
the international community by surprise.
Matthew
2:16, “Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise
men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children
that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years
old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired
of the wise men.”
Text: Matthew
2:16-23
Satan was the
real motivator of Herod’s actions. Ever since the Lord first
prophesied that a man would bruise his head, Satan has been seeking
out this “seed” of the woman (Gen. 3:15).
It appears that
Satan is able to perceive when the Lord is making a major move in the
earth. In the days of Moses, Satan moved Pharaoh to kill all the male
children of the Israelite slaves, and here he motivates Herod to kill
all the male children in Bethlehem. No doubt he was seeking to
eliminate this “seed” who was going to bruise his head.
Once again, we
see children being slaughtered today. This time it’s through
abortion. Our youth are also being attacked in unprecedented ways. Is
it possible that Satan thinks this is the generation that is to bring
in the second return of the Lord? Is he, in desperation, trying to
stay off his doom by destroying this generation?
We need to have
enough spiritual perception to recognize that just as in the days of
Moses and Jesus, this slaughter of the innocent children today is an
indication of an even more important struggle in the spiritual realm.
We might be the generation that sees the Lord come back. Praise the
Lord!
💭 Ethiopia:
Rusted screws, metal spikes and plastic rubbish: the horrific sexual
violence used against Tigray’s women.
Tens of thousands of Tigrayan women
report brutal wartime abuse by Oromo and Eritrean soldiers, such as
gang-rape and the insertion of objects into their uteruses. But
justice seems a distant prospect.
Tigray is often described as a
forgotten war. If it has been forgotten, it is not by those who
endured it, but by the global powers that looked away from one of the
most brutal conflicts of this century. It began in November 2020. The
fascist Oromo Islamic army of Ethiopia invaded, joined by forces from
the country’s then-ally, Eritrea, and militias from the nearby
Ethiopian region of Amhara.
Nobel Peace Laureate Oromo prime
minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed Ali faces allegations of Genocide,
war crimes, crimes against humanity by his military forces but has
had no charges or sanctions laid at his door. The entire world
continues supporting and aiding genocidal Abiy Ahmed. The World Bank
just gave him one billion US Dollars so that he could by more drones.
A handful of soldiers have been charged for participating in
massacres or raping women. The genocidal ascist Oromo Islamic regime
repeatedly pushed to defund a UN-backed probe into the abuses, and
the commission was finally disbanded
in 2023 with no resolution to continue its mandate. Two advisers
to the joint UN-Ethiopian human rights investigation, Aaron Maasho
and Martin Witteveen, wrote
last year that the transitional justice policy had become a
“farce”, making it “all but certain that the Ethiopian
government will successfully sweep its atrocities in Tigray under the
rug”. The Ethiopian and Eritrean governments did not respond to
Guardian requests for comment.
While the war is officially over, the
violence in Tigray continues. Research since the ceasefire shows
sexual violence by security forces has continued unabated. According
to the Office of the UN high commissioner for human rights (OHCHR),
Eritrean soldiers continue
to occupy significant parts of Tigray, particularly eastern
regions, where they are “committing violations, including
abductions, rape, property looting and arbitrary arrests”. And now,
rising tensions between the Ethiopian government and armed groups in
Amhara and Oromio leave the entire
region vulnerable to toppling into civil war again.
Many of the women speaking to
the Guardian allege they were held and repeatedly raped at military
bases by both Ethiopian and Eritrean forces – reports that indicate
sexual violence against Tigrayan woman was systematic, and to some
extent condoned by military hierarchies.
All of the women being
interviewed by the Guardian have sustained significant internal or
external injuries, and most need ongoing medical interventions,
surgeries and medication. Yet their access to already-limited help is
being severed by huge cuts to aid from the US.
Nearly 90%
of the women who experienced sexual violence during Tigray’s
war have not received any form of medical or psychological
assistance, with about half citing a lack of medical facilities as
the reason.
For the women who survived the
insertion of objects, living with this kind of foreign body means
“severe and long-lasting adverse health consequences and injuries”,
says Dr Rose Olson, an internal medicine specialist and instructor at
Harvard medical school, who has reviewed and commented on X-rays from
the cases.
👉 Selected Comments from “The Guardian” readers
• Sarah
Jane wrote:
Ooof well that’s a tough
read. Poor women and girl, I can’t understand the cruelty. This
needs attention. So sad. No words. Where’s the outcry for these
women? The protests? Bless you all I hope more attention comes to
this..,
•Leena Maria wrote:
I read the article and
went to throw up. How could we help these
women and those small clinics when those in power are not interested?
•Louisa Downes wrote:
I have no words for this.
My heart breaks for these women. How anyone can do this to another
human being is beyond me. These people make me sick
•John
Wiede wrote:
Sounds
like something the UN purposely turned their back on, quietly
supported with their genocide agenda
•Sarah Christian wrote:
It’s time for these men
to experience what they put out into the world. Women and children are
sick of being used and abused.
•Ilona Marianna wrote:
I'm crying. Not because of
horror, but because I can't avenge those poor souls and do the same
to those inhumane scumbags who destroyed innocent lives.
•Thomas Gower wrote:
How do we get justice for
these poor women? This is absolutely horrific! This is heartbreaking!
•lexus Woroniecki wrote:
Please actually read the
article, so you can truly understand how bad (which is just the tip
of the iceberg) it really is.
•Freya
Normington wrote:
It's a shame that the BBC
is mostly focused on Gaza so there is little time to report on
Eritrea etc.
•Ken
Thornton wrote:
Horrific, did not hear The
Glastonbury bands or their hipster fans protesting against this. Not
fashionable enough
•Joan
Bennett wrote:
This is one of the most
harrowing articles I have ever read, the trauma, pain and suffering
these poor women endured at the hands of these “ men”. War is
brutal and I wish none existed, but sadly they do, and the use of
rape, sexual assault on girls and women in war is beyond abhorrent, (
as it is in every case on a daily basis without question), but what
these “men” have done is beyond words, beyond abhorrent!! Do
these “ men” not understand that they are birthed by women, their
mothers, how would they like this done to them, to their sister,
daughter, aunt, niece, wife, granddaughter!! I truly hope that each
and every “ man” who did this truly barbaric act is found, and
brought to justice and I hope that justice is harsh!!! Where has this
come from, why would you even think of doing this barbarous act
against a girl or woman, you are not a man, you are evil, pure and
simple, evil. I hope that when your days are done, you find yourself
in the kind of place you fear the most, your hell not your heaven
•Sue
Hughes wrote:
Thank you for putting this
in the public eye. There is not enough on
mainstream news to inform the public. They focus more on frippery and
repetition.
•Laurelie Lau wrote:
This is beyond atrocious
horrifying. There are no words to describe the suffering of these
women.
•Rasheed Kaytz wrote:
This is inhuman I wonder n ask myself
what's the role of the do called "UN"?
I READ acts of war crimes
happening in the presence of these people in EU, NATO, AU, G7, why do
they keep on putting on neck ties when these acts are happening? Why?
•Morris Tedd wrote:
Where is America? Are
there no resources to pillage there?
•
Natalie Monica Lottersberger wrote:
HELP the women, publish it
an take action against the perpetrators!
•Yasmin Wilde wrote:
Oh my god. I think this is
the worst thing I’ve ever read. I feel physically sick.
•Scott Frost wrote:
And no street marches by
the usual thousands of useful idiots...
• Davy
Anderson wrote:
Where are the mass
protests, the flag waving etc?
•
Harrison Scott wrote:
Davy Andersonthe
perpetrators aren't white or Jewish so nobody cares. Speaking our
against these kinda of atrocities don't get as many likes on
Facebook.
•Lily Pop wrote:
Admirations to The
Guardian for writing such an incredible article on a topic that none
speaks about - the horrors these people endure must be made public in
order someone to react. It is a real atrocity and human cruelty to
stages beyond limits that have to be stopped. Keep on being bold
journalists and caring to speak about what matters.
•
Sandra Vymetal wrote:
Oh my god. I got no words
for this horror…. Except: Hell is empty
because all the devils are here ( Shakespeare)
•Isabelle Efternamn wrote:
Barbaric and inhumane
behaviour. I hope justice finds them brutally.
•Ria
Parkinson wrote:
This is one of the most
horrific things I’ve ever read. Those poor women.
•Samera Chiad wrote:
God help these poor women
and bring them aid and peace.
•Giulia Caruso wrote:
This is an absolute
atrocity and unspeakable pain
•Girmay Gebremariam wrote:
Thank you for covering one
of the most horrific stories of the Tigray war. There was nothing
left undone in Tigray while the world chose to remain silent. This
and many more painful stories need to get attention.
•Yarima Muazu wrote:
While the world and super
powers are watching
•Angesom Gebregergs wrote:
Our struggle will continue
until the perpetrators of this atrocity are brought to justice.
•Ọnụọha Udochukwu Ebubedike wrote:
The animals that did this
shall not go unpunished, one way or the other. I pray the women get
all the help they need to recover from this evil act Done by Abiy
Ahmed Ali.
•Maria
Cosima Brandt wrote:
I would like to know how I
can help... both for the medical help, as well as pressuring
politicians ...
•The
Scouse African wrote:
I sent you an article I
wrote when I was in Ethiopia last year. I witnessed the Ethiopian
military bombing farms and civilians. I was in the Tigray and the
Amhara region. Munition of choice? Turkish drones. In the past month
alone I have been sent 3 videos of atrocities committed by the ruling
party.
•Jorge Legends wrote:
Where on earth could this
happen, particularly in the twenty-first century? All those who did
it are in absolute denial.
•Haftom G Gebre wrote:
The world we are living
becomes horror from time to time. Justice for Tigray women is justice
for all women in the world.
•Amelia TheCoach wrote:
Unfortunately, none of
this is reported or condemned in the mainstream media. For all the
talk of feminism in the West, there is horrific violence committed
against women of all ages and young girls in places like these. I
wish something more can be done.
I wonder n ask myself
what's the role of the do called "UN"?
