the capital city of the tigray region in Northern Ethiopia thousands of internally displaced people have arrived here in the last three months they are fleeing a war between government troops Eritrean forces and local militias on one side and the thick right people celebration front on the other the conflict has devastated the local population hundreds have been killed in massacres thousands have fled and countless women and girls have been violently raped I am one of the first foreign journalists to reach tigride at macaulay's either Hospital doctors are overwhelmed by the number of rape victims seeking help
they say rape is being used as a deliberate weapon in this war now you're seeing many cases many cases daily in relation to the war yeah where it's a dramatic increase in the number of cases almost all of them they tell you that they are ripped by soldiers victims of raid go to the Center for Women and Children within the hospital systemulu is the first point of contact since the war how many patients have you seen roughly roughly 260. 260. yes in this clinic alone yes it is no no no they are not knowing the
person who rape versus as a group they get as many diseases they acquired many diseases like HIV like hepatitis like STI the women who reach the center often have serious physical wounds a warning the stories that you're about to hear are incredibly distressing reminders hello foreign is recorded medical examinations will be done and she's given an initial counseling session but this is one of the only hospitals still open in this region the charity msf estimates that just over 10 percent are functioning normally the other have been destroyed in this war Transportation they can buy themselves
to work after three days after four day after a week the day becomes very angry they haven't have any clothes they are migrants they haven't have any Financial they have nothing close their clothes are disorganized by the sharp materials by knife by anything when they arrive the persons they cry with them in the center they becomes damaged our minds this is not a this heavy to understand nobody feels safe even in this Hospital which is guarded by government forces two weeks ago a medical student was raped by soldiers in this compound as she walked from
the library to her classroom before the war the police had the power to bring perpetrators to justice but the local Administration has been disbanded since the conflict began now the tikray region is under a state of emergency and a coalition made up of Ethiopian troops Eritrean soldiers and local militias now that they have the ultimate power some are accused of being on a Revenge mission there is an important service there is no court every everything every person is as you do as easy as you want bye now the tigray people is Liberation Front or tplf
ruled Ethiopia for 27 years they too committed crimes against other communities in the country once a powerful group they are now hiding in the mountains unable to protect their population and the people here feel helpless what's happening to them especially to the women of tigray she said she came here around nine days ago yeah wow so so the rape cases are still coming already victim-sized yeah you can get them in the world you can get them wherever you like but rape case are always coming the special thing about this case is this client is she
was already pregnant and on top of that she was trapped and she was also hit by that you can social sustained almost strangers being get pregnant with around 10 weeks of gestational age and trapped probably from Harris history that she told us from her history she was ripped for three days being locked in a house by one of the soldiers and she came to us pleading this 19 year old girl was working as a waitress and was stopped by soldiers on her way home do you know are we obviously looking up together um foreign foreign
and he ordered him to take her and throw her on the road pregnant many of the victims are too traumatized to go back to their families they fear the attackers will go after them a refuge away from the hospital is for those women who have lost everything who cannot return home we are now heading to a safe house where there are around 40 women all of them victims of rape it's in a hidden location and we were advised to travel separately in case we were being followed one shocking story that I kept on hearing was
that of a woman in the safe house foreign she managed to escape and get help but when she went home she was raped again whilst trying to flee with her 12 year old son they and other women get caught again foreign [Music] foreign foreign religion results [Music] it's not over here [Laughter] 12 years kill it in front of her she crying she crying when she remember him her child she crank she's not stable this is very painful service to us how can I clarify it for every woman who manages to get help there are 20
or 30 more she talks about who haven't been able to make it to a safe place the innocent victims of a war who feel abandoned not just by their country but by the International Community that report produced by Jamal Osman and Amir Amani chiaro Elias tefare and Daniel Araya and if you've been affected by the issues in this report you can go to channel4.com forward slash support tonight in a statement the Ethiopian Embassy has said that they remain deeply concerned by allegations of the use of rape as an instrument of War the government also maintains
a zero tolerance policy towards rape and sexual violence it goes on the government of Ethiopia has taken concrete steps to address any human rights abuses that have occurred within the context of the conflict triggered by the tplf and also welcomes International assistance to undertake further investigations and welcomes the possibility for collaboration on potential joint investigations with relevant human rights bodies that was their statement now this terrible conflict has inevitably led to a refugee Exodus we're drawn down from the Sudan Ethiopia border by CNN senior International correspondent Nema El bergier you've also heard amarande if you've
also heard the kind of accounts that we saw in Jamal's report and are people still fleeing across the border we've certainly heard similar stories with regards to the perpetraces this allegation that Eritrean soldiers amhara militia the whanau also another amhero militia have been involved with this and also the sense that the women have that this is very very intentional that the the pathology behind this isn't about rape as a as a tragic consequence of War definitely that they feel this is about rape as a weapon of War one of the the women whose stories was
relayed to us because even here in Sudan Matt women are very very afraid this was relayed to us through a doctor said that when she was raped repeatedly by Ethiopian soldiers she says she was told that her blood was being purified that she was being amarized the amher of course another ethnic group involved in that conflict in Ethiopia and for those who are familiar with what happened in the former Yugoslavia with what happened in that four which I covered that has the chilling chilling overtones that just a very similar feeling that these these women aren't
just part of a conflict to push the tigraines off the land this is about erasing to cry and the tigraine identity and the tigraine bloodline which is one of the Hallmarks of genocide the the the sadness is that those stories are now even being stifled from reaching the world through one of the last safe havens which was the passageways through here to Sudan back in December and November thousands of refugees made their way here a couple of days ago we were told 12 made it today five to six and we understand not just from the
refugees but also from contacts within the Sudanese military that that is because there is a concerted effort by the Ethiopian military to block these refugees from safety and and to keep their stories the other side hidden away into greymat
