😔 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”
👉 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!
