FILE PHOTO: A pro-TPLF revel is escorted through the street as he returns to Mekele in 2021
| Published July 20, 2025
🌍 Context: Tigray War
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The Tigray War was one of the most brutal and underreported conflicts of the 21st century. It erupted in northern Ethiopia and quickly spiraled into a regional war with devastating humanitarian consequences.
📍 Where is Tigray?
Tigray is a region in northern Ethiopia, bordering Eritrea and Sudan. It’s home to the Tigrayans, one of Ethiopia’s many ethnic groups. Historically, Tigrayans held significant power in national politics, especially through the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a former rebel group turned political party.
⚠️ What Triggered the War?
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Tensions had been building between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government and the TPLF after he came to power in 2018.
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In November 2020, Abiy accused the TPLF of attacking a federal military base in Tigray and launched a military offensive.
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This marked the start of a two-year war that involved:
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Ethiopian federal forces
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Eritrean military troops
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Amhara regional militias
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Against the TPLF and local fighters.
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⚔️ Use of Sexual Violence as a Weapon of War in the Tigray Conflict
During the Tigray War (2020–2022), sexual violence was not incidental—it was systematic, widespread, and deliberate. Testimonies, medical reports, and human rights investigations all point to the intentional use of rape and sexual torture as a tool of war by various armed groups, including Ethiopian federal forces, Eritrean soldiers, and allied militias.
🔥 Patterns That Indicate Weaponization
Sexual violence in Tigray was marked by horrifying consistency:
1. Targeted Acts of Terror
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Women and girls were raped in front of family members—including their children and husbands—to humiliate and terrorize entire communities.
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In many cases, mothers and daughters were raped side by side, a deliberate psychological assault designed to destroy family bonds.
2. Mass, Public Rape
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Gang rapes occurred in homes, churches, and schools.
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Victims were often paraded naked through villages or raped in groups, signaling a method of collective punishment.
3. Brutal Physical Mutilation
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Survivors reported horrific injuries: burning with hot metals, genital mutilation, and objects inserted into the body.
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Doctors documented victims with torn reproductive organs, destroyed pelvic structures, and long-term disabilities.
4. Ethnic Hate Speech During Rapes
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Many women recounted being called “Tigrayan wombs that must be wiped out.”
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This suggests genocidal intent, aiming to destroy the group by targeting its reproductive capacity.
5. Use of Rape in Detention
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Women held in military camps or makeshift prisons were subjected to repeated assaults over days or weeks, with some reporting being raped by dozens of men.
🧾 Documented Evidence
✅ UN Findings
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A 2022 UN report concluded that rape was used as a tool of war in Tigray to “punish and terrorize” civilian populations.
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The report found reasonable grounds to believe these acts amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
✅ Human Rights Watch & Amnesty International
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Both organizations independently verified testimonies and confirmed that sexual violence was carried out with coordination and impunity, especially by Eritrean and Ethiopian government forces.
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Reports noted a complete absence of accountability and deliberate obstruction of survivor access to justice and healthcare.
🧠 Strategic Objectives Behind Wartime Rape in Tigray
Sexual violence was used not just to harm individuals—but to break down communities, ethnically cleanse regions, and assert military dominance.
🔹 Demoralization
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By assaulting women, fighters aimed to shame husbands, fathers, and entire ethnic groups—effectively breaking their will to resist.
🔹 Forced Displacement
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Rape created unbearable fear. Survivors and their communities fled, allowing soldiers to take over homes, land, and territory.
🔹 Ethnic Cleansing
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The combination of rape, hate speech, and forced impregnation has led some investigators to suggest a campaign of ethnic cleansing, if not genocidal intent.
🔹 Biological Warfare
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Some rapes were committed with the intent to transmit HIV, further devastating the health and dignity of victims.
🚫 Barriers to Justice
❌ Medical Support Blocked
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Hospitals were looted or destroyed.
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Survivors often had to walk for days to get post-rape treatment—if they could at all.
❌ Legal Accountability Lacking
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Almost no perpetrators have been charged or convicted.
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The Ethiopian government promised investigations, but international observers say transparency and survivor safety are lacking.
❌ Social Stigma
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Survivors face intense shame and are often abandoned by husbands or communities.
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Many have been left to raise children born of rape with no support.
🌍 Global Silence & Hypocrisy
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The international community failed to take urgent action, even after credible evidence emerged.
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Media coverage was scarce, and international outrage was muted compared to conflicts in Ukraine or Syria.
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Critics argue that Africa’s wars—and African women—are too often ignored on the global stage.
💔 The Mother–Daughter Story: Two Lives Torn by War
By Diana Cinco Zapata
They used to argue about chores.
The daughter, 16, was spirited—quick to laugh, quick to challenge her mother about the way she folded clothes or boiled lentils. The mother, 45, was patient, firm, and protective, always shielding her child from the hardships of life in their small village in Tigray, Ethiopia.
But on one unremarkable afternoon in late 2020, the world changed in a way no mother or daughter could prepare for.
It wasn’t a battlefield they stepped onto.
It was their own home.
👣 The Soldiers Arrive
The mother remembers it clearly: the boots, the shouting, the metal slamming against wood. Soldiers—men in camouflage, some speaking Tigrinya, others Amharic—stormed into their home without warning. Their rifles hung loosely at their sides. They weren’t looking for weapons or food.
They were looking for something else.
And they took it.
“They said, ‘You are Tigrayan. You deserve this.’”
What happened next cannot be undone—and will never be forgotten.
😭 Raped Side by Side
The mother tried to shield her daughter, pulling her behind her, begging. “She’s just a child,” she said. The soldiers laughed.
“You gave birth to her,” one of them said. “Now you will watch.”
They dragged both of them into a single room.
There were five men.
Two held the mother down.
Two pinned the daughter.
One watched, then rotated in.
They were raped repeatedly, sometimes at the same time, sometimes one after the other.
They were beaten, bitten, and burned with the tips of cigarettes.
One soldier urinated on the daughter while calling her a “Tigrayan dog.”
When it was over, the soldiers took their phones, food, and blankets—then warned them:
“If you speak, we will come back. And we will not leave you alive.”
🩸 The Days That Followed
They did not scream. There was no one left to hear.
The village clinic had been destroyed. The roads were mined. The phone lines had been cut. They were utterly alone in their trauma.
The daughter bled for days.
The mother, herself torn and bruised, tore up her own clothes to make pads for her daughter.
Neither could walk without pain.
They survived on boiled water and dry lentils.
At night, the daughter curled into her mother’s lap—crying not like a teenager, but like a child who had been ripped from her own body. She whispered over and over, “I want to disappear.”
FILE PHOTO: Captive Ethiopian female soldiers arrive at the Mekele Rehabilitation Center in Mekele, the capital of Tigray region, Ethiopia, on July 2, 2021
FILE PHOTO: A damaged tank stands abandoned on a road near Humera, Ethiopia, November 23, 2021
🧨 One of Thousands
Their story is not unique.
Human rights organizations report that sexual violence during the Tigray War was systematic, intentional, and used as a weapon of war. Women were targeted for their ethnicity, their gender, and their silence.
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Mothers and daughters raped together
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Women raped in front of their families
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Girls as young as 8 and elderly women up to 80
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Objects used to torture victims internally
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Pregnancies resulting from rape—with no medical care
In this mother–daughter case, the girl became pregnant.
She miscarried weeks later in a displacement camp, alone, on a concrete floor.
“She screamed. There was blood everywhere,” the mother says. “She held the fetus in her hands and asked if it was still alive.”
Broader Impact & Aftermath
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Beyond the direct violence, the war crippled medical services: an estimated 86% of health facilities in Tigray were damaged or destroyed.
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This devastation led to soaring rates of maternal and infant mortality—maternal deaths rose to around 840 per 100,000 births, compared to just 186 per 100,000 before the conflict.
Implications:
Here are the implications of the mother–daughter rape case during the Tigray conflict—framed in layers: human, legal, political, and societal.
🔴 Human Implications
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Lifelong Trauma: Survivors face physical injuries, PTSD, depression, and social ostracism. In cultures where rape is heavily stigmatized, victims may be blamed, abandoned, or silenced.
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Generational Damage: Rape in conflict often leads to unwanted pregnancies, HIV, and intergenerational trauma. In this case, both mother and daughter carry wounds that may impact their family line emotionally and socially for decades.
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Loss of Safety & Identity: Homes, communities, and even one’s own body become sites of violence. This war stripped women of control over their lives and identities.
⚖️ Legal Implications
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War Crimes Classification: The use of sexual violence as a weapon of war is a violation of international humanitarian law—potentially constituting war crimes or crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
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Lack of Accountability: Despite international reports confirming widespread rape, very few perpetrators have faced prosecution. This undermines the credibility of global justice mechanisms and emboldens future violators.
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Justice Delay: Without witness protection, trauma care, or functioning courts, survivors often cannot seek justice—denied even their right to be heard.
🏛️ Political Implications
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Government Denial or Inaction: Ethiopian authorities have been accused of downplaying or obstructing investigations into sexual violence. This undermines domestic rule of law and fuels international distrust.
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Geopolitical Hypocrisy: Western nations that condemned Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine have been accused of showing comparative silence or inaction over atrocities in Africa—raising questions of double standards.
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Peace Without Justice: Any peace deal that ignores these crimes risks being temporary. Survivors demand recognition, accountability, and reparations—not just a ceasefire.
🧠 Societal Implications
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Cultural Breakdown: Communities in Tigray were deliberately targeted through their women. Rape was used to shame families and destroy traditional support structures.
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Gender-Based Violence Normalization: When rape is widespread and unpunished, it risks becoming normalized in post-war society—leading to higher rates of domestic violence and impunity.
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Humanitarian Urgency: Survivors need trauma-informed care, safe housing, legal aid, and reintegration services—yet many aid groups face restricted access and funding gaps.
FILE PHOTO: A truck, carrying grains to Tigray and belonging to the World Food Programme (WFP), burns out on a route 80 kilometers from the Semera, Ethiopia, on June 10, 2022
FILE PHOTO: Gebre Kidan Gebrehiwet, 2, is treated for malnutrition after fleeing from the town of Abi Adi with his mother, Abeba Tesfay, at the Ayder Referral Hospital in Mekele, May 6, 2021
Captive Ethiopian soldiers arrive at the Mekele Rehabilitation Center, Ethiopia, on July 2, 2021
Overall Takeaway:
The story of a mother and daughter raped side by side is not just a tragedy—it is an indictment of a world that watched too little and acted too late. Their pain is a symbol of thousands of others who endured similar horrors in silence, their voices buried beneath politics, indifference, and the fog of war.
As Ethiopia begins to rebuild, true peace cannot be measured by ceasefires or signed agreements alone. It must be judged by whether survivors of wartime sexual violence are heard, healed, and given justice.
Because until the world treats rape in war as seriously as bombs and bullets—and until those responsible are held to account—there will be no lasting peace, only a fragile silence built on the broken bodies of women and girls.
Their stories demand more than sympathy.
They demand justice.
And they demand it now.
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