Weaponizing the Womb: Reproductive Genocide in Tigray

What led to atrocities? 

Tigray is the most northern of Ethiopia’s 11 regional states, lying along the southern border of Eritrea with Sudan to the west. Armed conflict between federal forces and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), erupted in November 2020, and rapidly escalated into a large-scale military campaign involving Ethiopian federal forces, allied regional militias, and Eritrean Defense Forces.

Ethiopia’s prime minister denied the presence of Eritrean troops in Tigray for months, despite it becoming clear he had formed an alliance with the country’s former enemy to mobilize both nations' armies.  

As fighting intensified, the federal government imposed severe restrictions on access to Tigray, including limitations on humanitarian aid, telecommunications, and independent media. These measures contributed to a deepening humanitarian crisis, widespread displacement, and acute food insecurity. 

At the center of this violence was a gendered campaign of terror: widespread and deliberate sexual and reproductive violence (SRV), a form of conflict related sexual violence; targeting Tigrayan women and girls. Evidence indicates that this violence was not incidental to the conflict but formed a strategic axis of ethnic cleansing, deployed through the systematic destruction of women's bodies, reproductive autonomy, and societal roles. 

The war resulted in massive civilian casualties, with atrocities and crimes against humanity committed by all parties. As troops moved into Tigray, Ethiopia blockaded the region, preventing journalists, UN agencies and aid from entering and limiting information getting out. Tigray quickly descended into an acute hunger crisis. 

Over 2.2 million citizens were displaced out of their places of origin and ended in either internally displaced camps inside Tigray or refugee camps in Sudan.

Despite the signing of the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (CoHA) in November 2022 by the government of Ethiopia and the TPLF, reports indicate that violence continued, including widespread and severe sexual and reproductive violence along ethnic-political lines across regions by military actors.