How Tigray war rape victims turned to Rwandan genocide survivors to heal

Women-to-women listening circles help heal trauma after brutal war left many with deep physical and psychological scars.

Tigray, Ethiopia – “I was angry all the time,” says Bezunesh, spinning wool in her small mud house in Bora, a remote district of deep valleys, sloping mountains and small terraced farms in Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray.

It has been a few years since the mother of eight, whose real name we are not using to protect her privacy, suffered the worst attack of her life – and the trauma of what happened still haunts her.

Tigray was under brutal siege by both the Ethiopian and Eritrean armies between November 2020 and November 2022. According to the African Union, more than 600,000 civilians were killed, and millions were displaced. At least 120,000 women and girls were raped during what regional health authorities say was a systematic campaign of sexual violence used as a weapon of war.

A survey-based study by Mekelle University in Tigray found that at least 570 women had been raped in Bora alone. Of them, 34 are HIV-positive, two died by suicide, and several are permanently disabled.

However, the number of sexual assaults is believed to be much higher as the stigma against victims in this religious and conservative district is so strong that many women preferred not to report them for fear of being ostracised by their families.