Recruitment at gunpoint: boys of 15 and 16 taken from the streets

Witness accounts describe a broad campaign of forced recruitment in Tigray, with men and boys aged between 15 and 65 being taken into the ranks of a new alliance of armed groups. According to emerging reports, Tigray rebel groups are forcibly recruiting boys as young as 15 as the fighting spreads.

Solomon*, a 52-year-old who fled to Addis Ababa, said the main recruitment targets are people aged between 15 and 40. He said he has seen armed members of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) dragging people of 15 and 16 off the streets and out of public transportation areas at gunpoint. Parents, he said, have tried to save their children by showing medical certificates, but the officers take anyone able-bodied:

Fighting broke out on 23 September, shattering the Pretoria deal

Renewed conflict between Ethiopia's federal government and the TPLF, which rules the Tigray region, erupted on 23 September. The fighting shattered the fragile Pretoria peace agreement the two sides had signed in November 2022. The TPLF launched its attack after months of escalating tensions and says it was responding to drone strikes by the federal government.

The alignments have also moved: the Eritrean Defence Forces and Amhara militias have switched allegiance and now fight for the TPLF. Those are the same forces that, during the 2020-22 conflict, committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Refusing the call, fleeing, hiding

Gezu*, 34, fought with the Tigrayan forces in the 2020-22 war, lost many of his friends on the battlefield and was grateful to survive; he had been planning to start a family when the TPLF authorities called on him to join their armed group after the latest outbreak of hostilities. He refused, he said, telling the recruiters to kill him rather than force him back to the battlefield.

When nobody joined willingly, the TPLF began seizing people from the streets and residents fled to the capital, according to Gezu*. He said he had held on in his home town until things started getting worse. Over recent months, Tigrayans with the means to leave have been travelling to the capital, Addis Ababa, fearing that war was coming.

Ephrem, 40, a father of three, had been planning to leave the region weeks before the fresh fighting erupted because he feared conscription. His wife and children grow anxious every time he leaves the house, he said, fearing he will be rounded up from the street. Families with money, he added, shield themselves and their children from the forced recruitment by bribing the officers - and no one, he said, wants to join the war.

The names Gezu, Solomon and Negus are pseudonyms, changed to protect their identities.

Mekelle under siege: frozen accounts, capped withdrawals, cut lines

Ethiopian Airlines suspended flights to and from the Tigray region on 23 September, stranding many people, after Tigrayan forces seized the airport in Mekelle, the regional capital. The region has spent the past week under siege after the federal government abruptly froze citizens' bank accounts, leaving residents unable to get at their money.

For residents, the squeeze now reaches almost every part of daily life:

• •Banks have reopened with a daily withdrawal limit of 2,000 birr (about £9), and long queues have formed outside.
• •Internet and phone lines were down on the TPLF's orders until this week, leaving families desperate for news of relatives in the region.
• •Negus*, an elderly man in Mekelle, said the 2,000 birr daily limit cannot keep up with soaring food prices.
• •He said it is impossible to leave the region, and relatives outside have no way to send in medicine or cash.

No one knows how long the siege and the war will last, Negus* said - he is just hoping it all ends soon.