New York: More than 500 rape cases have been reported to clinics in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, the United Nations said, warning that due to stigma and a lack of health services the actual numbers were likely to be much higher.

“Women say they have been raped by armed actors, they also told stories of gang rape, rape in front of family members and men being forced to rape their own family members under the threat of violence,” Wafaa Said, deputy UN aid coordinator in Ethiopia, said in a briefing in New York.

She said at least 516 rape cases had been reported by five medical facilities in Mekelle, Adigrat, Wukro, Shire and Axum.

“Given the fact that most health facilities are not functioning and also the stigma associated with rape, it is projected that actual numbers are much higher,” she added.

A dozen top UN officials have called for a stop to indiscriminate and targeted attacks against civilians in Tigray, particularly calling out reports of rape and “other horrific forms of sexual violence”.

Fighting in Tigray broke out in November between government troops and the region’s former ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has also said troops from neighbouring Eritrea were in the region.

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Redwan Hussein, spokesman for the government’s emergency taskforce on Tigray, Billene Seyoum, spokeswoman for the prime minister, Mulu Nega, head of Tigray’s interim administration, Eritrea’s Foreign Minister Osman Saleh Mohammed and Eritrea’s Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel did not respond to requests for comment.

The violence in Tigray has killed thousands of people and forced hundreds of thousands to flee from their homes in the mountainous region that is home to five million people.