Rights investigators say Tigray's regional authorities have spent recent months pulling men and teenage boys off the streets and out of gold mines to fill the ranks of local forces, a practice that, if confirmed, would violate international law barring the recruitment of children under 15.
Human Rights Watch published findings Monday describing a pattern that began around April 2026: uniformed personnel showing up at homes at night, sweeping through markets, and detaining workers at small-scale mining sites, then transporting some to military camps. The group says it built its account from conversations with 18 people, including relatives of those taken and men who managed to avoid capture.
Why this matters now: Tigray has been under a fragile truce since late 2022, when a two-year war with federal forces ended after killing an estimated several hundred thousand people. Any sign of renewed militarization in the region, especially involving coercion of civilians, raises concern that the peace deal is weakening at a fragile moment.
According to the accounts gathered, recruiters worked from names of former fighters and relied on tips from residents to track people down. One especially violent episode was reported in the Kola Tembien area, where miners were reportedly detained, some beaten, and loaded onto vehicles bound for training sites.
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Around the same time, Tigray's ruling party introduced a law making service mandatory and punishing those who refuse. A party representative pushed back on claims of coercion when HRW raised concerns earlier, maintaining that fighters had joined by choice.
Laetitia Bader, HRW's deputy director for Africa, said the recruitment drive was "creating a climate of fear throughout the region."
Families described going into hiding, sleeping away from home, and in some cases fleeing to the capital to keep sons and husbands out of reach. A smaller number said relatives were themselves held briefly after evading service.
HRW is asking the outside parties who backed the 2022 truce, including the African Union, the US, the EU, Kenya, and South Africa, to push Tigray's leadership to stop the roundups, free anyone taken against their will, and reconsider the new law.
