Urgent Call for Action: Ethiopia

A young woman from the Ogaden region in Eastern Ethiopia presently living as an applicant for asylum in Baden -Wuerttemberg, Germany, has contacted us recently.

Since the beginning of this year Ogaden women have been consistently raped by members of the Ethiopian military. These women are infibulated. As brutal an act as rape generally is, it is many times worse for virgin women who have the two sides of their vulva closed by stitches to a very small opening. The rapists are using hunting knives or even their rifles'  bayonets to cut open the infibulation scars in order to be able to enter. These barbaric acts occur under circumstances beyond human comprehension.

In most cases gang rapes by a number of soldiers are committed. Many young victims bleed heavily and die. Survivors often commit suicide, feeling as though they have lost all worth for themselves and their community. Dishonoured virgins, they cannot see any sense to continuing their lives.

All military stationed in the Ogaden region are from the north of Ethiopia where, according to statistics, from the World Health Organisation (WHO) 21% of the people suffer from HIV. HIV as yet had not been reported from Ogaden. The rape thus means for the few women who survive this ordeal that they are likely to be infected with HIV and will suffer a long and painful path to death.

Contact:

Bundesministerin Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul

heidemaire.wieczorek-zeul@wk.bundestag.de