Violence in Ethiopia

Rebel groups in Tigray recruit teenage boys under threat

Fighting in northern Ethiopia is escalating, and rebel groups in Tigray are forcibly recruiting boys and men, *The Guardian* reports.

Witnesses tell the newspaper that rebel forces are rounding up boys aged 15 and 16 and taking them away at gunpoint.

"They take anyone whose hands, eyes, and feet are functional," says an anonymous man who fled from Tigray to Addis Ababa.

"Kill me rather than force me to the battlefield"

Tigrayan rebel groups are recruiting widely and aggressively as the conflict with Ethiopian forces threatens to plunge the region back into full-scale war, *The Guardian* reports.

34-year-old Gezu—a pseudonym—fought for Tigrayan forces during the 2020–2022 war. He is grateful to have survived the conflict, unlike several of his friends. Recently, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) called him again.

"I told them they could kill me rather than force me back to the horrors of the battlefield," he says.