Authorities in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region have been forcibly recruiting civilians, including children as young as 15, for military service, the US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Monday.
“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, HRW’s deputy Africa director.
Bader urged the authorities to “to “immediately end their campaign and allow those unlawfully recruited to return home.”
Tensions have escalated again in recent months between the central government in Addis Abeba and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the region’s dominant political party.
The two sides fought a brutal war from 2020 to 2022, marked by atrocities on all sides, which ended with a ceasefire in late 2022. Concerns are now growing that renewed tensions could lead to a fresh armed conflict in the Horn of Africa.
HRW said residents across the region were reporting that Tigrayan 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, which are a key source of income for many young men.
Local authorities did not initially comment on the allegations.