{"id":5520,"date":"2026-09-25T04:17:26","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T04:17:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=5520"},"modified":"2026-09-25T04:17:26","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T04:17:26","slug":"young-men-flee-tigray-amid-fears-of-forced-recruitment-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=5520","title":{"rendered":"Young men flee Tigray amid fears of forced recruitment | News"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>6 Minute, 3 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>


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Tigray, Ethiopia \u2013<\/strong> Gebru, 27, says he was taken from his neighbourhood to a local administration office with other young men. His parents feared he would be sent to fight and searched for a way to get him out. They eventually paid to secure his release, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was taken to the office with other young men. My parents found a way to get me released by paying 20,000 [Ethiopian] birr ($123) in cash.\u201d<\/p>\n

After he was released, Gebru left Tigray for Addis Ababa.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy parents were afraid that if I stayed, I would be taken again. They told me to leave Tigray and save myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gebru is among young men who say they are leaving Tigray because they fear being forcibly recruited to fight as political and military tensions rise in the northern Ethiopian region.<\/p>\n

Nearly four years after the November 2022 Pretoria Agreement ended the war between Ethiopia\u2019s federal government and the Tigray People\u2019s Liberation Front (TPLF), reports of forced recruitment and military mobilisation have raised fears among young conflict survivors that they could once again be drawn into fighting.<\/p>\n

The African Union-brokered agreement ended two years of war in Tigray, but key issues \u2013 including contested territory, the return of displaced people and the disarmament of Tigrayan forces \u2013 remain unresolved.<\/p>\n

Human Rights Watch reported in July that Tigrayan authorities and forces had forcibly recruited civilians, including children as young as 15, since at least April. The organisation documented cases involving former combatants and other men and boys who it said were taken from streets, homes, workplaces and gold-mining areas.<\/p>\n

The allegations come as tensions between the federal government and the TPLF have risen, with both sides accusing the other of military mobilisation. Heavy fighting was also reported near Ethiopia\u2019s border with Sudan in August.<\/p>\n

For some young men, the response has been to leave.<\/p>\n

Leaving before they are taken<\/h2>\n

Shewit, 24, had been trying to rebuild his life after the war. He was studying at Mekelle University, running a language-class business he had started about a year earlier and helping to look after his younger siblings.<\/p>\n

But as reports of recruitment and military mobilisation increased, he said staying in Tigray began to feel unsafe.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had already survived one war. I didn\u2019t want to go through another,\u201d he told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

He eventually left for Addis Ababa, leaving behind his family, his studies and his business.<\/p>\n

\u201cI left behind my siblings, who depended on me, and a business I had sacrificed so much to build.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says he does not want to return unless he can bring his family with him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to go back. In fact, if I can, I want to bring my family and my siblings here with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those who remember the battlefield<\/h2>\n

Gebrehiwot, 28, is still in Tigray. He fought during the previous war but says he does not want to return to the battlefield.<\/p>\n

He says the experience changed the way he viewed the war\u2019s political and military leadership, particularly after seeing wounded fighters and families of dead soldiers struggle after the fighting ended.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were told that we were fighting for our people, but after the war ended, I saw wounded fighters and families of the dead being abandoned.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says reports that former combatants were being called back increased his fears.<\/p>\n

\"Shewit,
Shewit checks the news on his phone in his apartment in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia [File: Million Gebrekidan\/Al Jazeera]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cFormer combatant friends were being called back to the army and I heard some had been taken away forcibly. I was afraid I would be next, so I left my hometown and moved to Mekelle, hoping I would not get identified here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike Shewit and Gebru, he has not left Tigray. But he says his experience of the previous war makes the prospect of another mobilisation difficult to contemplate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know what the battlefield looks like. I don\u2019t want to go back there and risk not coming home.\u201d<\/p>\n

A wider pattern<\/h2>\n

Human Rights Watch says the recruitment allegations extend beyond former fighters to civilians and young people.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found that both former fighters but also civilians \u2013 young men, sometimes boys \u2013 were being abducted, detained,\u201d said Laetitia Bader, the organisation\u2019s Horn of Africa director. \u201cSometimes in the streets, in marketplaces, also in mining areas which is an important form of livelihood in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bader said Human Rights Watch had documented cases involving minors as young as 15.<\/p>\n

The organisation also said a mobilisation proclamation introduced in June criminalised desertion and attempts by relatives to prevent loved ones from being conscripted.<\/p>\n

For young people who survived the previous war, Bader said, the reported recruitment was another reason to flee.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe forced conscription continues to have an impact. Young people continue to try to flee the region not only because of the forced conscription but also the devastating humanitarian situation in the region,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The TPLF has disputed allegations of forced recruitment, saying young people were joining voluntarily. TPLF spokesman Michael Asgedom previously described the allegations as a \u201cmistaken narrative\u201d.<\/p>\n

Al Jazeera contacted Asgedom for a response to the allegations in this story, but he did not respond to calls or text messages.<\/p>\n

From recruitment to another war?<\/h2>\n

Muauz Gidey Alemu, an assistant professor of political science and lead researcher at the Tigray Institute of Policy Studies, said the recruitment should be understood within a broader political and security crisis that followed the Pretoria Agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe emergence of forced conscription at this particular moment should not be understood simply as a military recruitment exercise,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is better understood as a symptom of the deeper political and security crisis that has developed around the incomplete implementation of the Pretoria Cessation of Hostilities Agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gidey said the agreement had stopped large-scale fighting but had not resolved all the political and security issues surrounding the post-war period.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe present situation demonstrates that Pretoria produced an effective cessation of large-scale warfare but an incomplete peace settlement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Aerial
Aerial view of Mekele, the capital of Ethiopia\u2019s Tigray region, September 23, 2026 [Million Gebrekidan\/Al Jazeera]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He said continued mobilisation could create a cycle in which insecurity fuels military recruitment, which then deepens insecurity.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolitical insecurity generates military mobilisation; military mobilisation reinforces political insecurity; political insecurity then becomes an argument for further mobilisation,\u201d Gidey said.<\/p>\n

For the young men interviewed by Al Jazeera, however, the question is less about the political calculations driving mobilisation than about whether they can avoid being pulled back into war.<\/p>\n

Gebru says leaving became his way of protecting himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter what happened, I knew I could not stay there and live normally. I felt that the only way to protect myself was to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shewit is now in Addis Ababa, separated from his family and the life he had been rebuilding.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t leave because I wanted to. I left because I wanted to have a chance to build a future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gebrehiwot, who remains in Tigray, says his hopes are simpler.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want anything extraordinary. I just want to live peacefully, stay with my family and never have to pick up a gun again.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Tigray, Ethiopia \u2013 Gebru, 27, says he was taken from his neighbourhood to a local administration office with other young men. His parents feared he would be sent to fight and searched for a way to get him out. They eventually paid to secure his release, he says. \u201cI was taken to the office with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5521,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_templately_pack_id":"","_templately_imported_at":"","_templately_source":"","_templately_import_session_id":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-international-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t