NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) – UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict says “serious allegations of sexual assault” have emerged in Ethiopia’s controversial Tigray region, while women and girls face a shortage of rape kits and HIV drugs amid restrictions on humanitarian access.
“There are also disturbing reports of individuals allegedly being forced to rape members of their own families under threat of imminent violence,” Pramila Patten said in a statement released late Thursday. “Some women have also reportedly been forced by military elements to have sex in exchange for basic products, while medical centers have indicated an increase in the demand for emergency contraception and testing for sexually transmitted diseases.”
Patten joined the growing call for immediate and unconditional access to the Tigray region, where fighting broke out in early November between Ethiopian forces and those of the now fugitive Tigray leaders who once dominated the country’s government.
A spokeswoman for Patten’s office would not say which “military elements” were involved. Fighters in Tigray include those from the neighboring Amhara region and other parts of Ethiopia as well as soldiers from neighboring Eritrea.
Newcomers to camps for refugees and internally displaced persons report sexual violence, and “there are increasing reports of sexual violence against women and girls” in the camps, Patten said.
The Ethiopian government says aid has started to flow into 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 spoke with visiting British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.
But humanitarian workers have told The Associated Press that access remains limited. In addition, the aid is sometimes accompanied by Ethiopian troops.
“We are shocked by the reports and allegations we have received of sexual assaults during the Tigray conflict,” Gemma Connell, the UN’s chief of humanitarian aid for East and South Africa, said in a separate statement Friday.
“The survivors of these alleged attacks should not be seen as statistics, but as individual women and girls whose lives have been profoundly changed by the violations committed against them.”