Katharine Horeld, Giulia Paravicini

ADDIS ABABA/NAIROBI – Authorities in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, which has suffered from war and is now in crisis, are forcing youth to join the fight against its central government. They threaten and jail relatives and local residents.

    The war in northern Ethiopia since late 2020 has killed thousands of civilians and uprooted millions, triggering famine and devastating infrastructure, though it has garnered less attention globally than other conflicts, such as the war in Ukraine.

    The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) says it is defending the region’s 6 million people against subjugation by federal government. Premier Minister Abiy Ahmed says the Tigrayan party is rebelling in order to get back control of national government. It ruled until his 2018 appointment.   

    Reuters conducted a dozen interviews from February to May with residents of Tigray, captured fighters and aid workers that provide a picture of forced recruitment by local officials in several parts of the region.

    The testimony suggests some Tigrayans, who volunteered in droves earlier in the war, are becoming increasingly reluctant to fight in a conflict that has ground to a stalemate following a ceasefire in March. 

    Kindeya Gebrehiwot, from the Tigray external relations office, told Reuters by email that some low ranking government officials had detained family members to force their relatives to enlist but said such incidents were rare, the relatives had been released and the officials punished.

    The arrests were not Tigrayan government policy, he said.

Kindeya stated that “the allegations of forced recruiting are not true.” However, the approaches to lower levels of government were not perfect. These irregularities, while rare and occasional, are not systematic.

Reuters asked for comment via the TPLF from both police officers and local officials, but received no response. The majority of communication links to Tigray were cut off since June. Some areas have been disconnected since the beginning of the war.

    Ethiopian government spokesman Legesse Tulu said government officials had received multiple reports of forced recruitment.

    The pattern began late last year, according to two captured Tigrayan fighters who spoke in February from a hospital in the neighbouring Afar region.

    It accelerated in January and intensified with mass arrests last month, added six Tigray residents, who all said they had friends or family members detained in an aggressive push to make people enlist.

    One of the captured fighters, 18-year-old Aleyu, described how a senior local official, whose name he did not know, came to his house in Endabaguna in northwest Tigray on Nov. 10. Reuters kept Aleyu’s surname secret to avoid any repercussions on him and his family.

    “He said my mother would be jailed and my family fined between 10,000 to 20,000 Ethiopian Birr ($195 to $390),” Aleyu said. He forced me to sign up.

    Aleyu was in the Dubti Referral Hospital after his leg was struck by machine gun fire near the town of Chifre in Afar, he said. His injured leg was nearly as thin as his ankle.

    Both Aleyu and the other captured fighter who spoke to Reuters were detained in the same hospital room, and the interviews were permitted by the Afar regional government. The men claimed they spoke freely and without guards.

    ‘I DIDN’T WANT MY MUM TO GO TO JAIL’

    The second fighter, Filmon, an 18-year-old student from the Tigrayan capital Mekelle, said officials held a meeting in their neighbourhood in November and told families to contribute one person to the armed forces or face fines or imprisonment. The meeting was not named by Filmon.

    “I joined. Filmon was in prison because he didn’t want his mum to be there,” he said, after sustaining a broken leg during an ambush.

    He said he lay injured for nine days – surviving on a few biscuits in his pockets and river water – before a farmer handed him over to the Ethiopian military, who treated him in a military makeshift hospital. According to his medical records, his leg was gangrene-infected and it was therefore amputated.

    “War is bad. He spoke quietly, saying that he could see the vultures eating their friends bodies.

    Their accounts were echoed by six residents in Tigray, all of whom asked not to be named for fear of retaliation.

    Each one said they either had a relative in jail or personally knew at least a dozen families who did.

    One resident said a leaflet was distributed at recruitment drives in the neighbourhood meeting halls in January calling on residents not to “hide”. The document was reviewed by Reuters and read: “For now, please go to military training, and contribute to the motherland.”

    The leaflet was dated Jan. 9 and stamped in the name of Tigray’s regional government and Mekelle city administration. Reuters could not independently verify its authenticity. 

    Another resident – a newly-married man who asked not to be named for fear of repercussions – said his pregnant wife was detained in April following a mandatory neighbourhood meeting, while he was away at work.

    People at the meeting, and at the police station where his wife was taken, told her she would not be released unless he joined up, the man said.

    He rushed to the police station to explain to her jailers that he could not join because of his job as an aid worker. He said, “You don’t need a Kalashnikov if you want to support the population,” Reuters recalled the conversation between him and the officers.

    His wife was released the next day after other female detainees shamed the guards for jailing a pregnant woman, he said. He was confirmed by his colleague in the humanitarian group he worked for.

    FIGHTING SPIRIT WANES

    Since Abiy’s government declared a ceasefire in March, there has been an uneasy truce. Tigrayan troops, which had threatened to march towards Addis Ababa, the capital, in November 2011, have since largely returned to their region.

    There have been some reports of sporadic fighting.

    However, the accounts of forced recruitment suggest the TPLF may be preparing for a possible resurgence in combat. These accounts also indicate a waning passion in Tigray to fight the conflict, something Kindeya has denied.

“There’s never been a shortage of people who are interested in joining our forces,” he stated, noting that many young volunteers have been returned to aid other than combative tasks.

His words were: “We’d always like to see peace but when it is impossible, war is forced upon us. We will have to be prepared to defend ourselves.” That is the perspective that guided all of our preparations and mobilisations.

    When federal forces largely controlled Tigray – from November 2020 until June 2021 – dozens of residents told Reuters pro-government forces had terrorised the population with mass killings and gang rapes.

    The government said some soldiers had been arrested, but that the reports were exaggerated.

    The abuses, which Reuters reporters heard recounted from major cities to tiny villages, helped fuel a flood of volunteers to join Tigrayan fighters, who drove the federal army and its allies out of Tigray in mid-2021.

    Another resident, who also requested anonymity for fear of retribution, said enthusiasm to join Tigrayan forces had waned after they pushed into neighbouring Amhara and Afar regions but were beaten back in bloody battles.

    “Previously, many young people had joined up, fearing they would be killed by the military or Amhara forces if they stayed at home, or seeking vengeance for abuses committed against loved ones,” he said. But now, there are less volunteers.

    The recruitment drive continues after the TPLF largely rebased to Tigray in April, saying it hoped that would allow desperately-needed food aid to enter. Only a tiny trickle has reached.

    “The central government is continuing the siege and blockade,” TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael said last week. “It’s preparing for invasion.”

    Ethiopian government spokesman Legesse denied aid was being blocked.

    BOYS AND GIRLS TARGETED

    One man in Mekelle said his 70-year-old neighbour had been jailed on April 16 to force her daughter to join up. The man claimed that his cousin had been imprisoned as well, three weeks earlier to force the boy to enlist.

    The residents interviewed by Reuters said they were aware of arrests in towns and cities across Tigray including Mekelle, Shire, Wukro, Adigrat and Adwa. Multiple sources confirmed raids in Mekelle Shire. Reuters was unable, however, to get people from the three other locations.

    Detainees are mostly held in police stations, said two of the residents who recounted visiting prisoners. 

    Foreign rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said they did not have enough information to comment. Journalists and researchers cannot access territory held by the TPLF.

    Another resident of Mekelle said his 17-year-old niece was simply forced to join up after local officials conducted midnight raids on homes in her village, which he declined to name, citing fears of retaliation.

    “Everyone is targeted, boys and girls,” he said. This has been the norm… It is impossible to count them.