Abuse accusations surge in Ethiopia’s war

HAMDAYET, Sudan: The young coffee seller said she was split from family and friends by an Ethiopian soldier at the Tekeze river, taken down a path, and given a harrowing choice.

“He said: ‘Choose, either I kill you or rape you’,” the 25-year-old told British wire service at the Hamdayet refugee camp in Sudan where she had fled from conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. The doctor, who treated her when she arrived at the camp in December, Tewadrous Tefera Limeuh, confirmed that he provided pills to stop pregnancy and sexually-transmitted diseases, and guided her to a psychotherapist. “The soldier forced a gun on her and raped her,” Limeuh, who was volunteering with the Sudanese Red Crescent, said the woman told him. “She asked him if he had a condom and he said ‘why would I need a condom?” Five aid workers for international and Ethiopian aid groups said they had received multiple similar reports of abuse in Tigray. The United Nations appealed this week for an end to sexual assaults in the region. Among a “high number” of allegations, particularly disturbing reports have emerged of people being forced to rape relatives or have sex in exchange for basic supplies, the UN Office of the Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten, said in a statement on Thursday.