{"id":280544,"date":"2019-07-02T17:42:12","date_gmt":"2019-07-02T21:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.google.com\/articles\/CBMiQ2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lmhydy5vcmcvbmV3cy8yMDE5LzA3LzAyL21vdmluZy1ldGhpb3BpYXMtdG9ydHVyb3VzLXBhc3TSAQA?oc=5"},"modified":"2026-10-05T11:34:35","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T15:34:35","slug":"torture-survivors-in-ethiopia-say-justice-and-care-have-not-followed-the-reforms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/280544","title":{"rendered":"Torture survivors in Ethiopia say justice and care have not followed the reforms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Torture in Ethiopian detention has become much less common since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office, but survivors of past abuse still have little access to medical care, counseling, compensation or justice, Human Rights Watch researcher Felix Horne wrote on 2 July 2019.<\/p>\n

\"Jijiga,
Jijiga, capital of Ethiopia's Somali Region and home of the former Jail Ogaden, on 29 September 2009 (Abdirahman Isak Aden, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0) [file photo]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One man who was held at a police station in 2016 for joining anti-government protests described what happened to him. \u201cI was stripped down to my underwear and whipped with an electric cable every night for a month,\u201d he said. \u201cThey removed three of my fingernails with pliers and beat me on the soles of my feet.\u201d He can now walk the streets without fear of arrest but cannot walk far because of the pain. He can no longer farm because officials took his family\u2019s small plot after his arrest, and at a caf\u00e9 in Jimma he regularly sees two of the men who tortured him.<\/p>\n

Horne wrote that for years torture was widespread and rarely reported. In any detention case Human Rights Watch looked into, torture and mistreatment were the norm, and almost no one was punished for it. Under Abiy Ahmed, the government openly admitted that torture had taken place and promised zero tolerance. The notorious Maekelawi police station and Jail Ogaden were closed, some judges began asking defendants how they had been treated, and Human Rights Watch said it received far fewer reports of torture.<\/p>\n

Survivors described stigma, lost jobs and property that local officials would not return. Horne wrote that he had not met a single survivor who had received counseling or psychological support in Ethiopia. \u201cIn six years, I have had no one to tell my story to. This is the first time I have been able to talk,\u201d said a man tortured in Ziway. \u201cI want to do that but where do I go for that? There is nowhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Human Rights Watch found little accountability. Some senior officials were arrested, including the former Somali regional president Abdi Illey, but many of those who carried out the abuse were still free. \u201cJust yesterday I saw two of the people who used to beat me regularly walking past me on the street,\u201d a former Jail Ogaden prisoner said in Jijiga. A new reconciliation commission had an unclear mandate and had met only twice, according to Human Rights Watch, and some of its roughly 40 members said they learned of their appointment from the media.<\/p>\n

A group of survivors in Bahir Dar set up the Cooperation for Rehabilitation of Victims to offer psychological support and medical help, but they said donors preferred to fund the future rather than help people recover from the past. Human Rights Watch urged the government and its donors to make rehabilitation and meaningful justice a priority.<\/p>\n

Sources:<\/strong> Human Rights Watch<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Moving on From Ethiopia’s Torturous Past  Human Rights WatchI was stripped down to my underwear and whipped with an electric cable every night for a month, all because I participated in protests [against the government],\u201d …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":837272,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-280544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethiopian-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/jijiga-town-2009.jpg?fit=1280%2C960&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-1aYU","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280544"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":837290,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280544\/revisions\/837290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/837272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}