Dr Hale Teka had travelled from Ayder Hospital in Tigray, where he treated so many women. “But the hospital had next to nothing to offer them. We had run so low on medicines we had to accept providing out of date medication. Thousands of urgent operations had to be cancelled. Some women were held captive for weeks – tied to trees and raped, repeatedly, sometimes in front of their husbands or fathers.”
One woman’s son was killed and his body kept by her feet for days. Every time she comes in for treatment, she sobs: “I have not even been able to bury him!”
Rita Kahsay, who arrived in Britain after an arduous journey from the Um Rakuba refugee camp in Sudan, spoke with her cousin Rowena.
Rita was stopped eleven times getting out of Sudan. “Every time a soldier stopped me, I thought – what did you do?” says Rita. She had to leave all the testimonies she had carefully collected behind and hide her Tigrayan nationality.
“Women have been left unprotected and yearning for justice,” she told the meeting.
There to hear them were members of parliament – including Helen Hayes – who chaired the meeting.
She was joined by several others, including Lord Tariq Ahmad of Wimbledon, the Prime Minister’s Special Representative on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict and panelists, who spoke passionately about the British government’s determination to tackle the problem. “We have heard of girls as young as 4 years old and some just 6 months who have suffered the most terrible abuses,” Lord Ahmad said.
The meeting heard of the sexual violence inflicted during conflicts around the world – from Bangladesh to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ukraine.
The occasion saw the launch of a book bringing together the testimonies of Tigrayan women.
“In Plain Sight” – written by Rita and Rowena Kahsay and Sally Keeble, who organised today’s event – is now on sale.
