Ethnic clashes in Kenya leave dozens dead

The latest deaths bring the toll in the town to more than 30 in the past week, as fighting sent thousands of residents fleeing into neighbouring Ethiopia.

“We are yet to assess the number of people killed and those displaced but I am confident the situation is about to be contained,” said Issiah Nakoru, Marsabit county commissioner.Officials and aid workers in Marsabit county said several houses in the town had been burned down.

Tom Omolo, Kenya Red Cross regional disaster coordinator, told Reuters his staff were unable to reach the areas where there was fighting.

“The whole area is a battlefield, we cannot send our team to help those people injured, offer rescue or assistance, neither can we establish how many people have been killed or injured – but we can still hear heavy gun shots,” he said.

Rural communities in northern Kenya have long clashed over the control of valuable grazing land, but the fighting in the town of Moyale has marked an escalation in tension.

Residents say politicians in the region, some 800km from the capital Nairobi, are using clan militia to jostle for power in new local administrations that have been formed since the March 4 election, and to settle old scores.

More than 20,000 people have fled into Ethiopia, residents and a Kenya Red Cross worker have said.

The government sent an unspecified number of troops from the Kenya Defence Forces to Marsabit, Samburu, Pokot and Turkana counties on Friday to restore peace.

The arid northern region of Kenya is also awash with guns due to its proximity to unstable neighbours such as Somalia, where al-Qaeda-linked rebels have been fighting to topple the government, and Ethiopia, where rebel fighters have made sporadic incursions into Kenya.

Tit-for-tat clashes

The fighting in Moyale, in Marsabit near the border with Ethiopia, is between rival ethnic groups – Borana on one side and an alliance of Gabra and Burji on the other, battling with guns and mortars.

Tit-for-tat clashes have also been reported this month in the northwestern Turkana region, an area where Tullow Oil has discovered oil deposits.

More than 10 people have been killed in those clashes, and thousands displaced.

Although Tullow’s operations have not been affected by the fighting, the oil company was forced to temporarily halt drilling for two weeks in October after local residents stormed their drilling sites demanding more jobs and benefits.