The Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO) issued an urgent appeal on July 12, 2026, demanding an immediate end to systemic rights violations as a mandatory military recruitment drive sweeps across the northern Tigray region.
The Tigray regional council, an entity dissolved under the 2022 Pretoria peace deal and reinstated unilaterally earlier this year, passed a drastic decree on June 24, 2026.
The new law mandates compulsory military service and enforces the death penalty for those who object.
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EHRCO confirmed that local authorities are using the decree to conduct forced roundups, noting that sweeps are targeting "youth and children whose age is not even full 18 years."
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The developments come amid escalating political and military friction between the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) and the federal government.
EHRCO observed that the threat of a returning war is triggering widespread panic, forcing "a high number of residents and youth to leave their area and migrate."
EHRCO's warning aligns with mounting apprehension from the international community, including global human rights watchdogs and foreign governments, who have expressed deep concern over the region's coercive mobilization.
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In its statement, EHRCO said that forced conscription directly violates the constitution and international treaties like the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
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To avert a major crisis, the body implored both the federal government and the TPLF to de-escalate and "facilitate a condition where it is resolved in a peaceful way by talking around a table."
"The FDRE government must fulfill its constitutional obligation to maintain the peace and security of citizens of the Tigray region," reads the statement.
