Photograph: EHRC/screenshot
The Ethiopia Human Rights Commission’s (EHRC) newly released investigation report has revealed the forced recruitment of people including child soldiers by Ethiopia’s Oromia regional state authorities and security forces to fulfill their soldier “recruitment quota”.
EHRC confirmed that children under 18 years old were at a temporary camp in Shashemene City and were told they would go for military training.
Out of 32 people interviewed by EHRC in the temporary camp’s hall in Hurufa Sub-city, Halelu Wereda, 14 were 15–16 years old, and an 11-year-old child was also reportedly found.
The investigation report has shown that relatives of the abducted child soldiers have been requested by the regional security forces to pay a ransom amounting from 20,000-100,000 ETB for their release.
The Oromia regional government and security forces have been accused of forcefully recruiting children, farmers, and youth for military service through arbitrarily mass arrest and hunting them door to door days earlier to EHRC’s investigation report.
EHRC visited military camps of the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) located in Adama, Bishoftu, Jimma, and Shashemene cities and interviewed residents, regional security forces, and local officials to collect data.
“ENDF has not received people including children who were forcibly recruited in the name of ‘The Recruitment of Defense Force” as recruited soldiers,” EHRC concludes.
“Therefore, people who have been subjected to arbitrarily detention should be addressed under the right to liberty of article 17 of the constitution rather than conscription,” EHRC recommends, calling for accountability.
Article 17 (1) of the current constitution states, “No one shall be deprived of his or her liberty except on such grounds and in accordance with such procedure such as are established by law.”
Article 17 (2) reads, “No person may be subjected to arbitrary arrest, and no person may be detained without a charge or conviction against him.”
Article 36(1) of the constitution also clearly states that children will “not be subject to exploitative practices, neither to be required nor permitted to perform work which may be hazardous or harmful to his or her health or well-being.”
