Nairobi — Unlawful, Abusive Campaign Creates Climate of Fear
Regional authorities in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region have been abducting and unlawfully recruiting civilians, including children as young as 15, for their forces since at least April 2026, Human Rights Watch said today.
Communities in towns and cities across the region said that Tigrayan forces and officials were abducting former combatants and other men and boys on the street, in offices, and in nighttime house-to-house searches, as well as from gold-mining sites, a key source of employment for the region's young men and boys.
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"The Tigrayan authorities' campaign to forcibly recruit men and boys into their forces is creating a climate of fear throughout the region," said Laetitia Bader, deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "The authorities should immediately end their campaign and allow those unlawfully recruited to return home."
Human Rights Watch documented 6 cases of forced recruitment, drawing on remote interviews with 18 people in June, including witnesses and relatives of those conscripted, and those who evaded or escaped abduction.
The recruitment drive followed months of escalating tensions between Ethiopia's federal government and Tigray's main political party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF). The two sides fought during the 2020-2022-armed conflict in northern Ethiopia, resulting in numerous atrocities, before signing a truce in November 2022.
Before April, local officials had used public meetings, letters, and phone calls to urge former Tigray Defense Forces (TDF) fighters to re-enlist.
In early June, the Tigray party issued a proclamation compelling military service. In a media interview responding to Human Rights Watch criticisms of the law, a party spokesperson denied allegations of forced recruitment and claimed that those defending the Tigray region were doing so voluntarily.
The campaign intensified in late April with mass roundups in streets, markets, and gold-mining sites. Interviewees said that local authorities had a list of former fighters and used neighborhood informants to identify potential recruits.
"Three armed men came to my house ... wearing TDF uniforms," said a former fighter who escaped recruitment in Tigray's Northwestern Zone in late April. "I was not the only one: about 17 others were taken with me to the town's police station. There were four or five youth around 16 or 17 [years old] with us."
Local authorities and forces also conducted mass roundups of civilians. One resident from Adi Gudem town saw local police, militia, and TDF members abducting people, including daily workers and farmers, one morning in late June.
"The armed forces [started] collecting people from every corner of town. Bajaj (rickshaw bike) drivers, too," he said. "There is a big water shortage problem in Adi Gudem, so youth serving the community with their carts [carrying water containers] were also taken. One cart owner tried to escape, but the militias began beating him so hard, he fell unconscious."
On May 22, police and TDF members ordered miners working at an artisanal goldmine near Kola Tembien, in Central Tigray Zone, to stop working, claiming the land was needed for investment. Two witnesses said that on the morning of May 25, dozens of police and TDF members returned, gathered the miners, and beat some before dividing them according to their weredas (district) of origin. One miner said he was taken to an unfinished building and held with around 50 to 60 other men and boys from the Kola Tembien area for about 8 hours:
"We were hungry and thirsty ... A wereda leader came and informed us we would join the TDF," he said. "All of us opposed the decision ... they had their guns, and began pushing everyone onto trucks ... They were driving really fast, at a high speed. One guy jumped off and fell on the road. When we looked back, we saw he wasn't moving."
The man managed to escape when the truck slowed down.
Interviewees said that new recruits were first arbitrarily held in administrative offices, jails, or schools then transferred to military camps for training in Northwestern and Southern Tigray. "My 29-year-old brother was taken away," one man said. "We didn't know where he was for a week. He managed to use a guard's phone to call my mother and said he was in a military camp in the Southern Zone." Forcibly recruited former fighters were typically sent to their former units or to a military camp.
Potential recruits said they were sleeping outside out of fear of being picked up, or fleeing Tigray. "We can't sleep," said one 30-year-old daily worker. "We have to change locations every night. But you can't feel secure while running and hiding. Because you left family members, like younger brothers, behind. If they can't find you, they take your younger relatives."
Two people interviewed said that Tigray forces and local officials in Northwestern Zone detained family members of those who evaded service.
"My son is 19. I told them I was poor, that I couldn't afford to send him out, but they didn't believe me," said a woman temporarily held at the local administration offices with other parents for 10 days. "We were there the whole day, without food and water. They would send us home in the evening. They kept asking us to bring our children, and if we didn't, we would be held there again."
The climate of fear is affecting communities across the region, Human Rights Watch said. Some families are sending their loved ones away to evade forcible recruitment. "My father was called to the kebele (local administration)," a 32-year-old man said. "The officials knew he had a son that could serve, so they told him that I should join the struggle. He told me I needed to leave. I moved to Addis [Ethiopia's capital] one week ago. I left behind my pregnant wife. I couldn't afford to bring her."
A farmer in Northwestern Zone said that, "people are in fear. It's affecting so many lives. Who knows, they may come for me at one point."
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The laws of war prohibit forced recruitment by non-state armed groups as an "outrage upon personal dignity" under Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions of 1949. Military recruitment or use of children under age 18, whether forced or voluntary, is a grave violation of children's human rights and a war crime for children under 15. Ethiopia ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict in 2014. The TPLF's recent proclamation threatening penalties and collective punishment of families of those who evade service or desert would also constitute international law violations.
The African Union and other governments supporting the 2022 truce, including Kenya, South Africa, the United States, and the European Union, should press Tigrayan authorities to halt forced recruitment, release all children and those forcibly recruited, and urgently withdraw its proclamation. International monitors, including from the AU monitoring mechanism and the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights should investigate and publicly report on allegations of forced recruitment and other abuses, Human Rights Watch said.
"The end of active fighting in Tigray once provided an opportunity to rebuild the shattered lives and society and work toward ensuring meaningful accountability," Bader said. "With the authorities squandering that opening, and the possibility of renewed fighting looming, concerned governments should urgently take action to prevent future atrocities."
