Since the Tigrayan insurrection began in November 2020, around 300,000 fighters have perished, according to Tigray TV, a media affiliate of the TPLF organization.

While the rebel-held media admitted the loses, it however blamed the Abiy government for “killing Tigrayan youth.” The media quoted TPLF’s affiliate youth association, claiming the Ethiopian government is responsible for the deaths of all Tigrayan youth fighters.

Due to lack of independent civil society & media inside Tigray, there has been no institution challenging the narrative by the TPLF regime’s news broadcasters. Critics say TPLF’s complete monopoly of information inside Tigray helps it to agitate the population with propaganda and recruit more youth to join the TPLF insurrection, perpetuating the cycle of war and deaths. In addition to media, the TPLF uses its infamous “1-to-5 network” to control all civil society, NGOs, hospitals and institutions inside Tigray.

The 300k death-toll figure has not been verified and reliable information is hard to obtain in the region. At the end of 2020, Western media reports said the TPLF had at least 250,000 troops and thousands more local militias but their numbers reportedly doubled shortly. Professor Kjetil Tronvoll, a key defender of the Tigrayan insurrection, once claimed the TPLF has more soldiers than the whole country (Ethiopia) and described them as battle-hardened fighters. As the war escalated, TPLF chairman Debretsion G/Michael officially called up all Tigrayans (nearly 7 million) “including children” to join his war, which has likely tripled the total numbers of both trained and untrained Tigrayan fighters to over 700,000 combatants.

Early in 2021, another TPLF affiliate admitted losing over 52,000 Tigrayan fighters in the initial phases of the war. Since then, the TPLF invaded Amhara and Afar regions using what analysts called a “human wave” tactic. The TPLF was forced to withdraw eventually, after losing several gruesome battles in Wollo & northern Shewa areas, which makes the total 300,000 death-toll figure a probability, analysts say.

Many Tigrayans have also reportedly died from starvation, as most of the food aid going into Tigray is diverted by TPLF to feed its mushrooming fighting force. USAID and other international organizations have confirmed they have no control on how much of their humanitarian aid is used by Tigrayan fighters.

Anti-war activists say the conflict in northern Ethiopia will likely continue since the rebels are recruiting more fighters. In March, the top TPLF leader Getachew Reda admitted the purpose of the 2020 “pre-emptive strike” on the federal government was to protect “TPLF leadership” from facing justice.