NAIROBI, Kenya (PA) – UN Special Representative for Sexual Violence in Conflict says ‘serious allegations of sexual violence’ have occurred in Ethiopia’s Tigray region as women and girls face shortages of rape kits and HIV drugs , amid restrictions on humanitarian access.
“There are also disturbing reports of individuals being forced to rape members of their own families under imminent threats of violence,” Pramila Patten said in a statement issued late Thursday. “Some women have also been forced by military elements to have sex in exchange for commodities, while medical centers have indicated an increase in demand for emergency contraception and testing for sexually transmitted infections.”
Patten joined the growing demands for immediate and unconditional access to the Tigray region, where fighting began in early November between Ethiopian forces and those of Tigray leaders, now fugitives, who once dominated the country’s government.
A spokeswoman for the Patten office did not say what “military elements” were involved. Fighters in Tigray include those in the neighboring region of Amhara and other parts of Ethiopia, as well as soldiers from neighboring Eritrea.
Newcomers to refugee camps and internally displaced people report sexual violence and “there are more and more reports of sexual violence against women and girls” in the camps, Patten’s statement reads.
The Ethiopian government says aid has begun to flow in the Tigray region, and Deputy Prime Minister Demeke Mekonnen said on Friday that 85% of all humanitarian aid corridors in Tigray are now open. He was talking to visiting British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.
But aid workers told The Associated Press that access remains limited. In addition, aid is sometimes accompanied by Ethiopian forces.
“We are horrified by the reports and accusations we received of sexual violence during the Tigray conflict,” Gemma Connell, the UN’s chief humanitarian for East and South Africa, said in a separate statement on Friday.
“The survivors of these alleged attacks should not be seen as statistics, but as individual women and girls whose lives have been profoundly altered by the violations committed against them.”