The Guardian Report Puts the Illegal TPLF Group’s Forced Recruitment of Children in Tigray Region Under Global Spotlight

Addis Ababa, October 7, 2026 (FMC) — Fresh testimony published by British newspaper The Guardian has put the alleged forced recruitment of children and young people by forces aligned with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) under renewed international scrutiny, with witnesses describing the rounding up of boys as young as 15 at gunpoint.

The report, published on October 6, documents accounts of an extensive recruitment campaign in the Tigray region following the outbreak of renewed fighting, with witnesses telling The Guardian that men and boys between the ages of 15 and 65 have been targeted.

Among the most disturbing accounts is that of a 52-year-old man who managed to flee the Tigray region. He told The Guardian that he had personally witnessed armed TPLF personnel rounding up boys aged 15 and 16 from streets and public transportation areas.

The witness said parents had attempted to protect their children by presenting medical certificates, but that such pleas were reportedly disregarded, with recruitment allegedly imposed on those deemed physically capable of fighting.

The testimony paints a grim picture of families living under the fear that stepping outside their homes could expose fathers and children alike to forced recruitment.

A 40-year-old father of three told The Guardian that his family had been living in constant anxiety over the possibility of his being taken. He said his children cried out of fear that he would be rounded up from the street.

He further alleged that those with financial means had resorted to bribing officers to protect themselves and their children from forced recruitment, underscoring the coercive environment described by witnesses.

Another witness, a former fighter who had already endured the 2020–2022 conflict, said he rejected a request from TPLF authorities to return to the fighting after renewed hostilities began.

According to his account, when people did not voluntarily join, recruitment shifted to the alleged rounding up of people from the streets.

The accounts reported by The Guardian are not isolated allegations. Human Rights Watch reported in July that authorities in the Tigray region had been forcibly recruiting civilians, including children as young as 15, since at least April 2026. The rights organization said communities had reported abductions and unlawful recruitment of men and boys from streets, offices, homes and other locations.

The emerging accounts therefore raise a profound question over the treatment of the very population in whose name the TPLF has repeatedly claimed political authority.

For years, the TPLF has sought to portray itself internationally as the political representative and defender of the people of the Tigray region. Yet the testimonies now reported by international media and rights monitors describe ordinary families allegedly being subjected to coercion, with even children reportedly drawn into renewed armed confrontation.

The reported targeting of minors is particularly grave. Boys who should be in school, with their families and communities, are instead described as being exposed to armed recruitment and the dangers of another war.

The accounts also reveal the deep personal cost of renewed mobilisation for people who have already lived through the devastating 2020–2022 conflict. One former fighter cited by The Guardian said he had lost many friends during the earlier war and did not want to return to the battlefield.

Yet, according to the testimonies, the refusal of residents to voluntarily join the renewed fighting was followed by alleged coercive recruitment.

The picture emerging from these accounts is therefore not simply one of a renewed military confrontation. It is one in which civilians themselves are reportedly being drawn into the conflict against their will, including children at an age when they should be protected from armed recruitment.

The international community has repeatedly affirmed that children must be protected from recruitment and use in armed conflict. The latest testimony from the Tigray region places renewed attention on whether those protections are being respected amid the return of armed confrontation.

For the people of the Tigray region, the question is stark: after years of conflict, displacement and loss, are they again being compelled to pay the price of political and military ambitions they did not choose?

The latest reporting by The Guardian, reinforced by earlier findings from Human Rights Watch, provides a disturbing account that demands sustained international scrutiny—not only of the renewed fighting, but also of what is allegedly happening to civilians and children caught in it.