NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) – Rape has occurred “conclusively and without a doubt” in Ethiopia´s embattled Tigray region, the country´s minister for women said in a rare government acknowledgement of the toll on civilians during 100 day of fighting.

The minister, Filsan Abdullahi Ahmed, issued the statement late Thursday after a task force visited Tigray to investigate accounts of sexual assault in a region of some 6 million people that remains largely cut off from the world.