Ethiopia border clashes push 50,000 into Kenya as gunfire persists

The Kenya Red Cross says the number of people displaced by the Ethiopia border conflict has climbed from an estimated 36,000 to more than 50,000. Regional head Malik Adan gave the figure at a meeting, counting both people in temporary settlements and those taken in by relatives and host families. A government-led assessment carried out on October 29 and 30 had put the total at 35,950 as of October 24, with about 25,000 staying with host families and nearly 11,000 in temporary displacement sites. No final, independently verified number has been confirmed.

Kenya's Inspector General of Police, Douglas Kanja, visited Moyale on November 5 and said around 10,000 people were sheltering in temporary shelters and public institutions, a count that excludes those staying with families. He confirmed one Kenyan died after being hit by a stray bullet, while a police report indicated an Ethiopian man also died from gunshot wounds sustained in Kenya. Kanja said more officers would be deployed along the border and that Kenya is engaging Ethiopia's federal government to help stop the fighting. Acting refugee affairs commissioner Mwasaru Mercy told Al Jazeera that a multi-agency team is on the ground, with the Department of Refugee Services coordinating local authorities and UNHCR, but said gunfire was still audible and "there are no contingency food stocks specifically for this incident because it happened abruptly."

The violence traces back to a long-running dispute over land and administrative control between Ethiopia's Oromia and Somali regional administrations. Tensions spiked around October 18 over the raising of the Somali regional flag in the contested Moyale area. Hawa Hassan, who fled after her house was burned, described a 13-year-old girl shot while sitting near a wall, and stressed the girl had not touched a flag; Al Jazeera said her account of the killing could not be independently verified. Hassan also said some women gave birth while fleeing, newborns slept on bare floors, and diarrhoea was spreading as mosquitoes multiplied.

Inside Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Red Cross Society said it delivered emergency shelter and household items worth about 30 million Ethiopian birr ($182,970) to 1,000 displaced households from Moyale town and nearby areas. The supplies included 2,000 tarpaulins, blankets, sleeping mats, dignity kits, jerrycans, kitchen sets, soap and solar lamps, with distribution under way. UNHCR representative in Kenya Fatima Mohammed Cole said many arrivals were women and children spread across six sites hosting Ethiopians, needing shelter, food and healthcare, and appealed for a ceasefire so families could go home. No refugee camp has been set up yet because the security situation must improve first.

Moyale's role as a Kenya-Ethiopia trading hub is buckling under the strain. Abdi Maalim of the Moyale Cross-Border Peace Committee said trucks hauling goods between Mombasa and Addis Ababa had been stuck near the border for almost two weeks, Kenyan trucks were stranded in Ethiopia, bank closures disrupted circulation of the Ethiopian birr, and traders reported price rises of about 20 percent. He said some Kenyan families moved further inland after bullets and heavy weapons landed near their homes, and called for more border patrols. "Previously, we were supplying this town alone. Now we are literally taking care of two towns together," he told Al Jazeera, noting households that cooked for five or six now feed 20 or 30.

Security analyst Dr Abdiwahab Sheikh Abdisamad told Al Jazeera the clashes have outgrown a local territorial spat, exposing deeper ethnic divisions and political competition between Ethiopia's regional administrations. He pointed to perceptions of Oromo expansionism and allegations of federal government backing for Oromia's regional leadership as risks deepening mistrust. Armed fighters crossing the border, stray bullets and further displacement, he warned, make this a Kenyan security concern on top of a refugee emergency.