Tigrayans now reluctant to sign up to fight - report

Attitudes in Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray towards taking up arms to fight against the federal government are shifting, the Reuters news agency reports.

Whereas once Tigrayans were said to be enthusiastic in their commitment to sign up to support the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) that is now on the wane, Reuters says.

It has interviewed a dozen captured fighters and aid workers who say that in parts of Tigray people are now being forcibly recruited.

In response the TPLF said that this was a rare occurrence and people who had done it were punished, Reuters says quoting Kindeya Gebrehiwot, from the Tigray external relations office.

The civil war between the federal army and Tigrayan forces is now in its 19th month. It has caused a humanitarian disaster with hundreds of thousands of people forced from their homes and millions in desperate need of food aid.

This article originally appeared in BBC News

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