Human Rights Watch reported today that regional authorities in Tigray regional State have been abducting and unlawfully recruiting civilians, including children as young as 15, into their forces since at least April 2026, alleging that the campaign has spread fear across communities and violated international humanitarian law.
The organization said Tigrayan authorities have carried out forced recruitment through street roundups, nighttime house-to-house searches, raids on workplaces, and operations at artisanal gold-mining sites, targeting former fighters as well as other men and boys across the region.
“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.”
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HRW said it documented six cases of forced recruitment through remote interviews conducted in June with 18 witnesses, relatives of alleged recruits, and individuals who said they escaped or evaded conscription.
According to the organization, the TPLF authorities initially encouraged former members of the Tigray Defense Forces (TDF) to rejoin voluntarily before escalating to mass roundups in late April.
Interviewees told HRW that authorities relied on lists of former fighters and neighborhood informants to identify recruits. Witnesses described former fighters being detained at their homes alongside teenage boys, while residents of Adi Gudem reported that police, militia members, and TDF personnel detained farmers, daily laborers, Bajaj drivers, and other civilians.
The report also alleged that dozens of miners at an artisanal gold-mining site near Kola Tembien were rounded up in late May, beaten, informed they would be conscripted into the TDF, and transported to military facilities.
According to HRW, recruits were initially held in government offices, schools, or detention centers before being transferred to military training camps. Witnesses also alleged that authorities detained or threatened relatives of those who evaded military service, while many young men have fled their homes or left the region to avoid recruitment.
Responding to earlier criticism of the recruitment law, a Tigray party spokesperson denied allegations of forced recruitment, insisting that those defending the region were serving voluntarily, HRW said.
HRW also argued that the TPLF’s military service proclamation, which reportedly penalizes families of draft evaders, contravenes international law. It urged the African Union and international partners supporting the Pretoria peace agreement—including Kenya, South Africa, the United States, and the European Union—to pressure Tigrayan authorities to end forced recruitment, release those unlawfully conscripted, and revoke the military service proclamation. It also called on the African Union’s monitoring mechanism and the UN human rights office to investigate the allegations.
