Ethiopian leader says troops who raped civilians in Tigray will be held to account after CNN investigation

CNN — Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said Tuesday that his government would hold accountable any soldier found responsible for rape or looting in the country’s conflict region of Tigray, just days after CNN and the UK’s Channel 4 News published investigations into rape being used as a weapon of war against women. “Regardless of the TPLF propaganda of exaggeration, any soldier responsible for raping our women & looting communities in the region will be held accountable as their mission is to protect,” he said, referring to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, the region’s ruling party, which is now leading a resistance against Ethiopian and Eritrean forces in the area. In stories published and broadcast Friday, CNN spoke with nine doctors in Ethiopia and one in a Sudanese refugee camp who said they had seen an alarming increase in sexual assault and rape cases since Prime Minister Abiy launched a military operation against TPLF leaders, sending in national troops and fighters from the country’s Amhara region. “First, it is essential that an independent investigation into conflict-related sexual violence in Tigray be initiated, with the involvement of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.” They called on all parties to the conflict “to fulfil their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law; ensure their forces respect and protect civilian populations, particularly women and children, from all human rights abuses; explicitly condemn all sexual violence; and take action to bring perpetrators to justice where abuses do occur.” A victim left pregnant A CNN team in Hamdayet, a Sudanese town on the Ethiopian border where thousands of refugees from Tigray have gathered in recent months, spoke with several women who described being raped as they fled fighting.