On Monday, Reuters reported that the Tigray People’s Liberation Front had employed a forced recruitment policy, based on interviews with aid workers, captured fighters, and residents of Tigray between February and May this year. The TPLF in response said the allegations were not accurate but in a follow-up statement, released on Wednesday, the Tigrayan transitional government said: “Our people understand this [recruitment] and have been the primary owners of both the mobilisation and the fight”. The Tigray External Affairs Office added that, had they been a “ragtag” force, they wouldn’t have managed to fend off and win some battles against the allied armies of the Ethiopian government, Eritrea and Amhara forces. The government also said that, while there could be “irregularities at the lower level” in the recruitment process, it did not reflect the true nature of their military.
