Mekelle, Tigray (Wegahta) — A human rights organization has accused armed actors in Tigray region of carrying out widespread forced military conscription and mass roundups of civilians, warning that the practices are expanding across multiple zones amid fragile post-war political tensions and worsening humanitarian conditions.
Human Rights First–Ethiopia (HRFE), said in an investigative report published today that it documented what it described as systematic forced conscription operations across most parts of Tigray, based on testimony from 27 witnesses, including civilians, former fighters, local officials and individuals who said they escaped detention.
The organization said the findings indicate that forced recruitment has expanded beyond isolated incidents and is now occurring across multiple administrative zones, with the exception of Mekelle and a limited number of localities.
According to HRFE, forced recruitment activities initially emerged in the Northwestern Zone approximately three months before the report’s publication before spreading to the Central Zone, Eastern Zone, and Tembien areas. The organization said it received multiple testimonies indicating that recruitment operations are now taking place across “most areas of Tigray,” describing the practice locally as mass roundups, or “Afesa.”
The report identifies three main groups targeted in the alleged operations. First, individuals who previously served in the Tigray armed forces are reportedly being located and taken from their communities and reassigned to military units. Second, families who did not contribute members to the 2020–2022 war are allegedly being compelled to provide at least one recruit. Third, youth are being rounded up from public spaces including traditional gold mining sites, religious holy water sites, markets, bars, bingo halls and sports viewing centers.
HRFE said these recruitment practices have been reported in both urban and rural settings, with increasing frequency in areas associated with informal labor and youth gatherings.
The report situates the alleged recruitment campaign within a broader political crisis following the implementation challenges of the Pretoria Cessation of Hostilities Agreement, signed in November 2022 to end the two-year war. HRFE said the agreement established an Interim Regional Administration in Tigray led by Lieutenant General Tadesse Werede. However, it noted that political disputes emerged over the extension of the interim administration’s mandate, which the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) described as unilateral.
According to the report, the TPLF subsequently reactivated a regional council structure that had existed prior to the Pretoria agreement and reorganized executive bodies in the region, moves that contributed to a breakdown in relations with the federal government.
The report also notes that Tigray remains affected by severe humanitarian and economic pressures. It accused the federal authorities of failing to provided adequate fuel, subsidies, cash flow, or civil servant salaries, leaving residents in difficult conditions. More than one million internally displaced people remain in shelters across the region, according to the report.
HRFE argues that these political and economic conditions form the backdrop to rising insecurity and forced recruitment practices.
The investigation states that forced recruitment began in the Northwestern Zone, particularly in districts including Asgede, Zana, Tsimbla, Tahtay Adyabo and Tahtay Koraro, areas where traditional gold mining is common and youth populations gather for work.
From there, HRFE said operations expanded into the Central Zone, Eastern Zone, and Tembien, with indications that recruitment is now spreading further across the region.
The report describes recruitment operations as increasingly organized and coordinated, involving local security actors and armed groups who conduct nighttime and daytime roundups in populated areas. HRFE said testimonies suggest that individuals are often detained temporarily in administrative buildings, schools, or makeshift holding sites before being transferred to military units or training facilities.
One of the most detailed incidents documented in the report occurred in Sheraro Town on April 2, 2026.
HRFE said more than 51 youths were rounded up from surrounding rural areas by local militias and transported to Sheraro, where they were detained in a woreda administration building.
A witness identified as Ato Gebre (name changed) told investigators that he was detained along with more than a dozen others while opening his workplace in the early morning. He said detainees were later transported to Sheraro and informed that they would be joining military service. According to his testimony, requests for time to return home and settle family affairs were denied.
The witness described how, during the night, detainees used traditional cotton garments tied together to escape through a window as rain fell heavily. He said 36 people managed to escape, while 17 others, including elderly individuals and people with disabilities sustained during the previous war, were unable to climb down and were left behind.
The witness said he is currently in hiding.
In a separate incident in Sheraro Town, HRFE documented the case of a 29-year-old former university student and veteran of the 2020–2022 conflict. According to the report, the individual was removed by armed men during a traditional memorial gathering held for his father in mid-April 2026.
Witnesses said a local police officer and three unidentified armed men called him out of the gathering tent, spoke with him briefly, and then took him away. His family later learned he had been returned to a military unit, according to the report.
HRFE also reported similar operations in Shire Endaselasie and surrounding areas, where former combatants were reportedly identified and screened at a location described as a former Northern Command camp. The report alleges that individuals were assessed based on physical appearance, with those deemed capable taken into military service.
The report describes a large-scale nighttime operation in Zana Woreda on May 30, 2026, coinciding with public viewing of a major football match. HRFE said armed men conducted coordinated raids between 10:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m., targeting youth in DSTV viewing centers, bars, and bingo halls.
Witnesses said those detained were gathered and confined overnight in classrooms of a local school. One witness identified the armed group involved as a unit known as “Army 11.” A youth who escaped told investigators that bar owners hid young people after learning of the approaching armed men.
Eyewitnesses told HRFE that hundreds of youths were taken during the operation, though exact numbers could not be independently verified within the report.
In another incident in rural Zana, HRFE reported that youth were allegedly gathered under the pretext of land distribution by local authorities. Once assembled, a mass roundup was carried out, and the youth were taken to a military training camp located near a river identified locally as Frfr’a. The report characterizes this as part of a broader pattern of recruitment through deception combined with coercive detention.
In the Central Zone, HRFE documented the case of a 32-year-old merchant in Enticho Town on May 23, 2026. According to a witness, armed men approached the shop owner and demanded he join military service. When he refused, he was beaten with sticks and forcibly taken away. The man, identified as a father of four with no prior military service, had been working as a merchant at the time of the incident, the report said.
In the Tembien area, HRFE described an incident on May 20, 2026, involving coordinated action between local officials and a military unit identified as “Army 60.” A former kebele official told investigators that armed personnel and local administrators surrounded a crowded market and blocked escape routes before detaining more than 60 youths.
The detainees were reportedly taken to a high school and held overnight. The witness said some youths protested their detention, including a 16-year-old boy who pleaded for release on the grounds of age. The request was denied. According to the testimony, the boy later escaped, after which authorities detained his father and demanded the family surrender him.
HRFE said the detainees were later transferred to a military training facility near Nebelet. Two additional witnesses reportedly corroborated the account.
In the Eastern Zone, HRFE documented another incident on April 19, 2026, in which more than 18 youths engaged in traditional gold mining were rounded up near Bizet Town. The report said the youths were taken to a woreda administration office, loaded onto trucks, and transported away the following day.
Human Rights First–Ethiopia said the reported practices violate multiple legal frameworks, including provisions of the Ethiopian Constitution, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and international human rights law.
The organization cited constitutional protections against forced labor and arbitrary detention, as well as international legal standards relating to freedom of thought, conscience, and protection from unlawful detention.
HRFE said the detention of individuals for the purpose of conscription may constitute arbitrary deprivation of liberty under international standards.
The organization called on regional authorities in Tigray to immediately halt all forced recruitment operations, release individuals detained for conscription purposes and allow independent monitoring of detention sites across multiple zones.
It also urged federal authorities to improve access to essential services, including fuel, cash flow, and salaries and to support economic opportunities for youth in the region.
HRFE further called on international actors, including the African Union, the United States, and the European Union, to press for full implementation of the Pretoria agreement and to help prevent renewed conflict in the region.
The allegations come amid ongoing political tensions and unresolved disputes over the implementation of the Pretoria peace deal, which ended active fighting but left key governance and security issues unresolved. While the agreement formally halted large-scale warfare in 2022, competing political claims, economic strain, and unresolved issues continue to shape conditions in Tigray.
HRFE warns that unless underlying political disputes are addressed, the region risks further instability.