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Around 300 fighters from Ethiopia’s Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) have surrendered to federal authorities, according to the Ethiopian military, as tensions rise over fears of a possible return to the conflict that devastated the northern region between 2020 and 2022.
The federal army said the fighters surrendered to forces stationed along the Tekeze corridor in Tigray and handed over weapons and ammunition. The military said the group included divisional officers who had delivered more than 280 individual and crew-served weapons.
“Nearly 300 TPLF fighters surrendered to forces stationed along the Tekeze corridor,” the army said in a statement shared on Facebook.
The military said the fighters were unhappy with what it described as the TPLF’s preparations for another war. It also claimed the men opposed efforts by Tigrayan leaders to recruit young people for military activities.
“They also said they opposed what they described as efforts by TPLF leaders to recruit young Tigrayans and send them to war to protect themselves from accountability,” the statement said.
The TPLF’s vice president, Amanuel Assefa, declined to comment on the reported surrender, telling AFP he could not “comment on this kind of military issue”.
Reports by AFP and Human Rights Watch have documented allegations of forced recruitment by regional authorities, including accounts from young men who said they were taken to training camps against their will or fled their communities to avoid recruitment drives.
The Ethiopian military also claimed the surrendered fighters opposed what it described as the TPLF’s relationship with neighbouring Eritrea, calling the alliance harmful. Addis Ababa has repeatedly accused the TPLF of strengthening ties with Eritrea, a country with a long and difficult relationship with Ethiopia.
The TPLF ruled Ethiopia for nearly three decades before Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018. Although a peace agreement ended the war in 2022, Tigray remains economically weakened, with hundreds of thousands of people still displaced.
