Local militias and security forces are reportedly targeting young men in widespread street detentions and forced recruitment sweeps
By Staff Writer
(Nairobi, Kenya) — Young men across multiple regions of Ethiopia are living in a heightened state of anxiety as local militias and regional security forces conduct widespread forced conscription drives, according to Deutsche Welle Amharic reports citing civilian testimonies and ground accounts.
Civilian accounts from the Amhara, Oromia, Wolaita, and Southwest Ethiopia regions detail a pattern of forced recruitment, arbitrary street detentions, and enforced disappearances. Security forces and kebele militias systematically target young men in urban centers, transit hubs, and rural districts—particularly individuals unable to produce state identity documents. Witnesses report that recruitment operations frequently occur after dusk or in public gathering spaces, including football venues, coffee stalls, and roadside checkpoints, with victims loaded onto military buses and transported to undisclosed holding facilities or training camps.
In Sodo within the Wolaita Zone, as well as across districts in South Wollo and Debre Birhan, residents report self-imposed curfews and severe restrictions on daily movement to evade patrol units. Witnesses in Southeast Arsi’s Lude Hetosa woreda described forced sweeps where minors under 18, orphans, and migrant daily laborers were rounded up to fulfill local kebele recruitment quotas without family notification or formal administrative review.
While ground sources in Mizan Aman and Wolaita note that public outcry and media scrutiny have led to a temporary decrease in sweep operations in select localities, fear remains pervasive among youth, who describe the recruitment as effectively irreversible disappearance. Anonymous defense personnel acknowledged ongoing recruitment activities but claimed no central government order had been issued for forced conscription. Defense attorneys and human rights monitors emphasize that forced street roundups bypass statutory military recruitment standards and violate constitutional protections against arbitrary detention.
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