The National Rehabilitation Committee announced that by June, only 17,000 people have completed the process, despite plans to rehabilitate 75,000 former fighters through the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) process in the first phase of the Tigray region.
NRC commissioner Temesgen Tilahun told Deutsche Welle (DW) that the initiative launched in mid-November was “suspended for several months” and described the progress as “limited.”
Temesgen described the region’s political instability as “a major obstacle,” forcing the committee to suspend its operation. “We were forced to suspend work,” he said, adding that there are issues necessary to make it clear, such as screening previous combatants’ information and ‘arm organization and handing over.’
By the time the activity ceased at the end of December, only “about 8,000” of previous combatants had completed the rehabilitation and demobilization.
He noted that efforts resumed earlier this month. Since then, he said 17,000 former fighters have been “disarmed, completed rehabilitation training and reintegrated into the community.”
The Commissioner also highlighted that the rebooted disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) process is currently running from two centres, Mekel and Edaga Hamms.
Tigray’s DDR programme officially began on November 21, 2024 and covers 75,000 former combatants. This is part of a broader national effort to demobilize more than 371,000 former fighter jets from seven regions, with a budget of over $760 million. The first phase of Tigray is supported by 1 billion Birr from the Ethiopian government and $60 million from international partners.
The NRC previously announced that 5,728 former combatants had completed reintegration training at Mekel and Edaga Hamms centres before surgery was stopped.
