- Tigrinya service
- BBC
3 hours ago
Many criticisms have been leveled against Eritrea for imposing decades-long compulsory military service (from the archive)
Eritrea is mobilizing reservists to support the army that is helping neighboring Ethiopia in its fight against rebel forces.
Security forces stopped people in many areas to check whether they were exempt from military conscription.
Witnesses said that groups of men were crying as they said goodbye to their relatives.
Sources told the BBC that many in the capital, Asmara, were notified on Thursday and moved to the border with Ethiopia’s Tigray region within hours.
They said reservists were called up until the age of 55.
Eritrea has imposed mandatory military service for decades and has been widely criticized by rights groups. But analysts say the latest mobilization efforts are linked to the civil war in northern Ethiopia, a conflict that has renewed after five months of relative peace.
The Eritrean government has not commented on these reports.
Witnesses told the BBC’s Tigrinya service that mobilization notices were distributed on Thursday in the capital, in Keren, the country’s second largest city, in the western town of Thésenai and elsewhere.
Reservists were called to contact their main military offices and were advised to carry their own supplies, including blankets and water containers.
Mothers, children and wives were crying as they said goodbye to sons, husbands, fathers and brothers, sources told the BBC.
Those who do not respond to the summons have been warned of dire consequences, but some are said to be ignoring it.
Eritrea has been fighting alongside Ethiopian central government forces since the outbreak of civil war in Tigray in late 2020.
Hundreds of thousands have been killed and millions displaced by the war, with many more still in desperate need of food, according to aid organizations.
Several human rights organizations have accused Eritrean soldiers of committing atrocities in Ethiopia, but Eritrean officials have denied the allegations.
The United States imposed sanctions on the Eritrean Defense Forces and the ruling People’s Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ) party for their involvement in the conflict.
President Isaias Afwerki has ruled Eritrea since the country seceded from Ethiopia in 1993, but between 1998 and 2000 the two countries fought a brutal and costly war over a disputed border area.
A 20-year unresolved military conflict ensued until Abiy Ahmed became Ethiopia’s prime minister in 2018. Thanks to the peace agreement, Abiy Ahmed won the Nobel Peace Prize a year later.
The two leaders later united against the Ethiopian Tigray People’s Liberation Front, a common enemy whose elites had dominated Ethiopia for three decades before Abiy came to power.
The Ethiopian government accuses the leaders of the LTTE, who control the northern Tigray region, of plotting to destabilize the country, while Isaias considers them a sworn enemy.
Eritrea faces diplomatic isolation, a country where the military controls almost all aspects of people’s lives.
The repression has caused many young people to flee Eritrea.
During Isaias’ rule, apart from fighting Ethiopia, Eritrea found itself at war with all of its neighbors at one point, Yemen in 1995, Sudan in 1996 and Djibouti in 2008.