Nairobi - More than 40 000 people have fled recent clashes between two
northern Kenyan tribes over access to water and pasture, the International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said Friday.
"Over 40 000 people have fled their homes in Moyale, northern Kenya," said
Alexander Matheou, IFRC head for East Africa.
The UN had earlier said "tens of thousands" displaced by the fighting had
fled into neighbouring Ethiopia, where the majority are living with host
families.
Clashes between rival cattle herding pastoralists in the region are common,
with herders often carrying guns to protect their animals, but the recent
fighting has been unusually heavy.
The clashes pit two traditional rivals, the Borana and the Gabra, around the
town of Moyale on the Ethiopian border.
"We have never seen before what we are seing this time, entire villages,
entire schools destroyed, water points sabotaged," Matheou told AFP.
"Shops in Moyale are closed, houses, schools are empty, there is a very
eerie sense like a ghost town," he added.
"Conflict between the Borana and Gabra clans in northern Kenya has displaced
tens of thousands of people," the UN Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs said in a report Tuesday.
Food for 15 000 people has been sent to the area, along with plastic sheets
and household items for some 3 000 people, it added.
Fighting over land grazing rights in the remote Moyale region killed at
least 18 people last month after two days of intense violence between men
armed with automatic rifles and machetes.
The region was hard hit by severe drought in the Horn of Africa last year,
exacerbating tensions over land in the area, and sparking tit-for-tat cattle
raids.
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Received on Fri Feb 10 2012 - 18:13:25 EST
