More Than 50,000 Flee Ethiopian Border Clashes Into Moyale, Kenya, UN Agency Says
Families escaping fighting between Ethiopia's Oromia and Somali regions are sheltering in schools, churches and makeshift camps in northern Kenya as aid groups warn that food, water and sanitation are running short.
See where this is ›MOYALE, Kenya —
More than 50,000 people have crossed from southern Ethiopia into Moyale in Kenya's Marsabit County to escape fighting along the border, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said this week, according to the Ethiopian news site Borkena. The agency said the number recorded in Marsabit County climbed from 36,000 earlier in the week to more than 50,000, and Fatima Mohammed-Cole, UNHCR's representative in Kenya, said local authorities are tracking crossings that have not stopped.
See where this is ›Most of those arriving are women, children and older people. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Oct. 29 that many are staying with relatives or host families while others are in temporary shelters, including schools and churches. The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights listed St. Mary's Catholic Church, Harhosha Secondary School, Manyatta Burji, Sessi and Lanzi Mosque Hospital among the shelter sites and reported that four women had given birth among the arrivals, two at Manyatta and two at Bitiye.
The fighting is between security forces and allied militias from Ethiopia's Oromia and Somali regional states over control of Moyale, a border town split between the two countries. Addis Standard reported that the dispute began when Somali regional officials opened an administrative office and raised their flag in a part of town that Oromia says it governs. A 13-year-old girl, Diqqoo Jaataan Aagaa, was killed in an exchange of gunfire on Oct. 18, and heavier clashes broke out Oct. 22. The fighting has since spread into Ethiopia's Borana Zone.
On the Kenyan side, The Associated Press reported that stray bullets reached Moyale on Oct. 23, wounding a woman in the neck and shattering a hotel window. Kenyan police said hundreds crossed that day through points including Sessi, Kore, Biashara, Foundation and Miti.
The Kenya Red Cross Society, working with the Marsabit County Government, is handing out tents, blankets, sleeping mats, water containers and fortified porridge flour for young children and mothers. “Our priority is to make sure every family arriving in Moyale is safe, sheltered and treated with dignity,” said Dr. Ahmed Idris, the society's secretary general. OCHA said food is the most urgent need, followed by safe drinking water, shelter, sanitation and health care, and that “continued insecurity has forced several partners to suspend activities.”
The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights on Oct. 27 urged the national and Marsabit County governments to send medical teams and supplies, clean water and sanitation, and called on Kenya and Ethiopia to work together on the border crossings. UNHCR said it has sent an emergency team to Moyale and is bringing household items and shelter materials for nearly 12,000 people. The U.N. and its partners plan a joint assessment mission once it is safe.
What we don't know yet: No official death toll for the fighting has been released; officials on both sides confirmed casualties but gave no figures. The count of people who have crossed differs by source: the human rights commission estimated more than 40,000 on Oct. 27, while UNHCR and local authorities now put it at up to or more than 50,000.
