Latest news with #torture
Daily Mail
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Survivors expose horrors of Tigray war in harrowing testimonies
Survivors of the Tigray war in Ethiopia have spoken out about the horror they encountered in the violent conflict, including gang-rape, torture, and mutilation during and after the fighting. Tseday, a mother-of-two who had been living in the Oromia region with her husband when the war broke out, told French newspaper Le Monde that she was stopped and raped by 'soldiers from the federal army' as they fled into exile in the months after the ceasefire. In a harrowing testimony published on Wednesday, she said: 'They raped me first, then my two-year-old daughter. After that, they killed my husband and cut up his body in front of us. They forced us to watch.' SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO Nigist, a 17-year-old, told the outlet that 'armed men', of no stated affiliation, found her during an invasion of her village in the Kafta Humera area of western Tigray at some point before June 2023. 'They told us to undress, but I resisted,' she recalled. 'That's when they started hitting me, tearing off my clothes. I was raped by several of them. Then I fainted.' Birhan Gebrekristos, an author on the subject, told Le Monde that testimonies from the war described acts of torture including the insertion of sharp objects, screws or pieces of metal into women's wombs. Eritrean soldiers allegedly stuck needles into the womb of one pregnant woman, forcing an abortion, he said. Her child did not survive, and she later contracted a fatal infection as a result. Rights groups have documented horrifying accounts of abuse allegedly perpetrated by both allied Ethiopian and Eritrean forces, and the Tigray People's Liberation Front. In November 2020, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops into the northern region of Tigray, accusing its governing party, the TPLF, of mounting surprise attacks against military bases in the area. The TPLF denied responsibility. Journalists were barred from entering the region, challenging efforts to verify claims. In February 2021, Amnesty International reported that Eritrean soldiers had killed 'hundreds of civilians' in the city of Axum, Tigray, in November. Reports of mass atrocities began to emerge, with Eritrean forces accused of massacres and systematic rape. The U.S. said violence in Western Tigray was tantamount to 'ethnic cleansing'. A regional official alleged in April 2021 that Eritrean soldiers were holding Tigrayan women as sex slaves amid a wave of reported gang rapes - an accusation roundly denied by Eritrea. Tigrayan forces advanced on neighboring regions the following June and committed atrocities, including extrajudicial killings and sexual violence. Ethiopian government forces were also accused of widespread and systematic atrocities. A formal peace was agreed on November 2, 2022, but monitoring rights groups continued to report on forcible expulsions of Tigrayans as part of what they called an ethnic cleansing campaign. Survivors of the conflict, speaking to Le Monde, described alleged abuses by military forces months after the war ended. The outlet's reporting on the aftermath found that many victims have found no support from the authorities in Ethiopia or Eritrea since the war ended. Meseret Hadush, the founder of the Hiwyet Charity Association (HCA) told The Reporter Ethiopia earlier this year that 'over the past two years, we have reached nearly six thousand mothers, providing them with essential first aid and psychological treatment'. The organisation has not received funding from governmental bodies, she said, and relies largely on diaspora donations. She said that the end of the war had not brought about the end of sexual violence in the region, with widespread 'hardship' perpetuating the abuse of victims. Hadush explained: 'I still feel like a sense of siege persists, marked by widespread unemployment, a struggling economy, shortages of essential medicines, and visible food scarcity. Although the active combat in Tigray has ceased, the effects of the war still persist.' She noticed that female victims were still often burdened by social stigma, and the issue was often concealed 'in an effort to preserve family reputation and honor', adding: 'Many survivors have lost their marriages, particularly those who became pregnant as a result of sexual violence.' Tseday, who has been seeking help as a survivor of sexual violence, recalled to Le Monde how she fled the Oromia region with her husband when the war broke out. 'As Tigrayans, it was impossible to keep living there,' she said. The mother-of-two left with her family in June 2023 and journeyed into the Afar region before being stopped by 'soldiers from the federal army'. She said that she and her two-year-old daughter were raped before soldiers 'forced us to watch' them kill and 'cut up' her husband. They were taken to a 'cell' near the town of Samara, where she said they stayed for a year. Every day, she said, a soldier abused her until the Tigrayan army liberated them. Human Rights Watch reported in June 2023 that they had spoken to 35 people between September 2022 and April 2023 who alleged more than 1,000 Tigrayans had been held in detention across several towns on the basis of their identity before being expelled. One 28-year-old who was detained in Bet Hintset prison in Humera said that there was 'no medical treatment' at their unofficial detention site. 'If people got sick, they remained there until they die.' 'Many' displaced people told Human Rights Watch after the conflict ended that they did not feel safe to return so long as abusive officials and security forces remained. In October 2022, nearing the end of the conflict, the UN refugee agency had registered 47,000 Ethiopian refugees in eastern Sudan. More than two million people were forced to flee their homes over the course of the conflict. Civilian structures in Tigray, including hospitals and schools, were shelled, looted and destroyed by Ethopian federal forces and regional militias, and by Eritrean armed forces. Ethiopia had only recently emerged from a decades-long war with neighboring Eritrea. Before its independence, Ethiopia's northern neighbor had been friendly to the TPLF, together overthrowing the despotic Mengistu regime in the late 1980s. But the 2020-2022 war saw Eritrea and Ethiopia attack Tigray from the north and south respectively, squeezing the civilian population. Ahmed only acknowledged Eritrean soldiers had entered Tigray in March 2021, after months of denials. Abiy Ahmed was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 after settling the long-standing territorial dispute with Eritrea. He ran on a platform of peace and reconciliation, and faced wide criticism over the conflict in Tigray.
Asharq Al-Awsat
3 days ago
- Politics
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Libyan ICC War Crimes Suspect Arrested in Germany
German authorities have arrested a Libyan war crimes suspect accused of being a senior official at a notorious prison where inmates were routinely tortured and sometimes sexually abused, the International Criminal Court said on Friday. Khaled Mohamed Ali Al Hishri, alleged to have been a member of the Special Deterrence Force armed group during Libya's civil war, was arrested on Wednesday, German authorities said, Reuters reported. The ICC said he would remain in German custody, pending the completion of national proceedings. Prosecutors at the ICC accuse Al Hishri of war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder, torture and rape from February 2015 until early 2020, a period during which he was allegedly one of the most senior officials in the Mitiga prison. According to the prosecution, Mitiga was the largest detention facility in western Libya, where thousands of detainees were held in cramped cells without basic hygiene and were systematically subjected to brutal interrogations and torture. Men and women held there also faced sexual violence including rape, the prosecution said. It is a critical time for the ICC. Its prosecutor and four judges are facing US sanctions in retaliation for an arrest warrant it issued for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza conflict. A number of European ICC member states, including Germany, have also criticized the warrant. In addition to the sanctions, the ICC is also operating without its chief prosecutor Karim Khan, who stepped aside temporarily two months ago as he faced a probe by United Nations investigators into alleged sexual misconduct. Khan denies the allegations, and his two deputy prosecutors are running the office in his absence. In a statement on Friday, the office of the prosecutor said it expected Al Hishri to be transferred to The Hague and added that it stood ready to start his trial. "This development is so needed at a time of unprecedented turmoil in the field of accountability generally and at the ICC specifically," Kip Hale, an attorney who documented crimes in Libya for the UN, told Reuters. "Yet, it is most important for the victims of the many atrocity crimes committed at Mitiga prison," he added. Italy arrested another Libyan ICC suspect, Osama Elmasry Njeem, in January but subsequently returned him to Tripoli, saying the arrest warrant contained mistakes and inaccuracies. He was also accused of crimes committed against detainees in Mitiga prison. His release sparked outrage among Italian opposition parties and triggered a legal investigation into Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and several other government members. The court has been investigating allegations of serious crimes committed in Libya since the outbreak of its civil war in 2011, following a referral by the UN Security Council.
Reuters
3 days ago
- Politics
- Reuters
Libyan ICC war crimes suspect arrested in Germany
THE HAGUE, July 18 (Reuters) - German authorities have arrested a Libyan war crimes suspect accused of being a senior official for a notorious prison where inmates were routinely tortured and sometimes sexually abused, the International Criminal Court said on Friday. Khaled Mohamed Ali Al Hishri was arrested on Wednesday, German authorities said. The ICC said he would remain in German custody, pending the completion of national proceedings. Prosecutors at the ICC accuse Al Hishri of war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder, torture and rape from February 2015 until early 2020, a period during which he was allegedly one of the most senior officials in the Mitiga prison. According to the prosecution, Mitiga prison was the largest detention facility in western Libya, where thousands of detainees were held in cramped cells without basic hygiene and were systematically subjected to brutal interrogations and torture. Men and women held there also faced sexual violence including rape, the prosecution said. It is a critical time for the ICC. Its prosecutor and four judges are facing U.S. sanctions in retaliation for an arrest warrant it issued for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza conflict. A number of European ICC member states, including Germany, have also been critical of the warrant for Netanyahu. In January, Italy arrested another Libyan ICC suspect, Osama Elmasry Njeem, but released him back to Tripoli saying the arrest warrant contained mistakes and inaccuracies. Njeem was also accused of crimes committed against detainees in Mitiga prison. His release sparked outrage among Italian opposition parties and triggered a legal investigation into Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and several other government members. The court has been investigating allegations of serious crimes committed in Libya since the country's 2011 civil war, following a referral by the UN Security Council.
Reuters
3 days ago
- Reuters
Libyan ICC war crimes suspect arrested in Germany, court confirms
AMSTERDAM, July 18 (Reuters) - German authorities have arrested a Libyan war crimes suspect accused of being a senior official for a notorious prison where inmates were routinely tortured and sometimes sexually abused, the International Criminal Court said on Friday. Khaled Mohamed Ali Al Hishri was arrested on Wednesday, German authorities said. The ICC said he would remain in the custody of German authorities, pending the completion of national proceedings. He is accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder, torture and rape from February 2015 to early 2020. The ICC has been investigating alleged serious crimes committed in Libya since the country's 2011 civil war.
Geek Girl Authority
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Geek Girl Authority
NAUTILUS Episode 5 Sneak Peek: Things Get Ugly
Pressure reveals character. While the Nautilus continues to evade capture, the same isn't true for its crew. In the sneak peek clip below from Nautilus Season 1 Episode 5, 'Anguille Fumée,' it's implied that Director Crawley (Damien Garvey) uses torture to learn what Nemo's (Shazad Latif) plans are. RELATED: TV Review: Nautilus Episode 4, 'Slippery When Wet' Unfortunately, Captain Youngblood (Jacob Collins Levy) seems to trust his data more than intel extracted under duress. How reasonable of him. Crawley's not in the mood to be reasonable. Nor is he forthcoming about why the coordinates they've charted are so important. Nautilus, 'Anguille Fumée' The episode's logline hints at a lot that the clip doesn't reveal: The Nautilus is helplessly dragged into the volcanic Ring of Fire by a giant electric eel. The crew begins to drift off into hallucinogenic stupors caused by mysterious spores. Humility must summon courage to save the Nautilus and its crew. ( Fun fact: The episode's title, 'Anguille Fumée,' translates to 'smoked eel.' Read into that whatever you like.) RELATED: Read our Nautilus reviews As neither Humility (Georgia Flood) nor hallucinogenic spores appear in the clip, we can't make any predictions on how any of that turns out. However, the 'huge pulses of electrical energy' reported by Youngblood's crew member may be eel-related. Or it could be the Nautilus trying to escape the eel. That would still make it eel-related, I guess. The conflicting information indicates that Nemo's crew is loyal to him and their cause, even when faced with (one can assume) sadistic physical assault. Villains rarely see themselves as such, but Crawley's self-assured dehumanization of the hostage crew member sets him firmly in the baddie camp. His order to kill the man for lying makes him THE baddie of the moment. RELATED: 6 Great Historical Fiction Novels Focused on Real Women From History The jury's still out on the rest of the pursuers. Clearly, they aren't getting the full story behind the Nautilus and Nemo. Will they mutiny against their employers when they learn the truth? Will Nemo win them to his cause? Nautilus airs every Sunday on AMC and AMC+. Hawkins Is Under (and on) Fire in STRANGER THINGS Season 5 Teaser Diana lives in Vancouver, BC, Canada, where she invests her time and energy in teaching, writing, parenting, and indulging her love of all Trek and a myriad of other fandoms. She is a lifelong fan of smart sci-fi and fantasy media, an upstanding citizen of the United Federation of Planets, and a supporter of AFC Richmond 'til she dies. Her guilty pleasures include female-led procedurals, old-school sitcoms, and Bluey. She teaches, knits, and dreams big. You can also find her writing at The Televixen, Women at Warp, TV Fanatic, and TV Goodness.
