…Two years after the war in Tigray ended, rising political tensions have raised fears of renewed fighting. But most young people who once joined the Tigray Defence Forces are now rejecting the idea of returning to combat.
By Augustine Passilly (Special Correspondent in Mekele) la-croix
“I fought for Tigray to become its own country. Now our leaders can’t even agree on making it a functioning region,” said Mengesha, 21, a former Tigray Defense Forces (TDF) soldier, frustrated by the growing tensions. “We don’t understand why we should fight again. It feels like the government is hiding something from us. Whatever happens, we will say no to another war.”
Since the war between the TDF—the armed wing of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF)—and Ethiopia’s federal government ended in 2022, Mengesha has remained confined to military barracks. But he has resumed classes at a nearby high school, representing a war-weary generation that has little appetite for another round of violence.
‘I don’t want to die’
Back in November 2020, many young people quickly answered the TDF’s call to arms. Kidus, who was 20 at the time, joined after fleeing his hometown of Mai-Kadra, the site of a massacre in the early days of the conflict.
“We had no income anymore. I figured at least the TDF would feed me,” he said. He fought alongside the TDF for a year and a half until a peace agreement was signed on Nov. 2, 2022. “I was sad about the friends I lost, but I believed peace would follow,” he recalled.
At the end of the war, about 274,000 TDF troops were registered for a demobilization program that has barely begun. Only 6,000 have entered the process so far, hampered by limited funding and, more critically, a lack of political will. Tigrayan leaders say they don’t trust the federal government in Addis Ababa, which has dragged its feet on implementing key terms of the peace deal signed in Pretoria, South Africa. Many former fighters now fear they could be called back if war breaks out again.
Tigrayans are holding their breath. Internal divisions between TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael and Tigray’s interim president Getachew Reda appear to have calmed. But tensions between Ethiopia and neighbouring Eritrea continue to rise, threatening a return to armed conflict.
Like Mengesha, many former soldiers say they won’t fight again. “After war, the rich collect the profits, the politicians gather the leftover bullets, and the poor go to the cemetery to cry for their children,” said Kidus. “My parents are poor. I don’t want to die and leave them grieving for the rest of their lives.” Now a graduate in agro-economics, Kidus is scraping by in a displaced persons camp in Seba Kare, on the outskirts of Mekele.
Fleeing rather than fighting again
Kiros Grmay chooses her words carefully. Her brow tightens as she speaks.
“When I joined the TDF, I wanted to liberate occupied territory, protect civilians from killings and genocide, and help displaced people return home,” said the 27-year-old geology student. “Two years after the war ended, none of those goals have been met. Sometimes I regret taking part.”
If fighting resumes, she says she would rather flee to Addis Ababa, where she has friends in the south, or even leave the country, than wear the uniform again.
“At the start of the war, I was naïve,” she said. “The one-month training was easy. But during our first mission, we were hit with heavy artillery. A fellow fighter collapsed right in front of me.”
Kiros lost count of how many comrades died after that, but one thing she knows for sure: “I will not risk my life again.”
Tigray War: A devastating toll
- November 2020: The TPLF’s rebellion erupts after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed dismantles Ethiopia’s ethnic coalition system, replacing it with the centralized Prosperity Party. The federal government launched an offensive to retake Tigray.
- June 2021: Tigrayan forces recapture Mekele, the regional capital, and push the conflict into neighbouring regions. A renewed Ethiopian-Eritrean military offensive later drove them back into Tigray.
- November 2022: A peace deal, brokered by the African Union, is signed in Pretoria. The toll: Between 385,000 and 600,000 dead, according to a University of Ghent study, and more than 2 million people displaced.
*Some names have been changed for security reasons.
