Overview

• A joint Physicians for Human Rights and Organisation for Justice and Accountability report published July 31 documents ongoing conflict-related sexual and reproductive violence in Tigray, Amhara and Afar nearly three years after the Pretoria peace deal.
• The investigation analyzed more than 500 medical records, over 600 health worker surveys and dozens of interviews to reveal widespread multi-perpetrator rapes, forced pregnancies and the insertion of objects such as stones, nails and letters into survivors’ bodies.
• Survivors and health workers identified Eritrean and Ethiopian military personnel alongside Amhara militias and Fano fighters as the primary perpetrators of these abuses.
• Perpetrators openly endorsed a genocidal campaign to eradicate Tigrayan births, holding women captive until they gave birth to ensure long-term harm to the ethnic group.
• Persistent impunity and blocked accountability efforts have allowed these atrocities to endure and spread, while aid cuts and obstructed investigations leave survivors with scant access to justice or medical care.