Hundreds of Ethiopians have fled into Kenya following fighting in the border town of Moyale, Kenya Red Cross and local government officials said on Thursday.
– Fighting broke out on Wednesday and gunfire could still be heard a day after in parts of the town on the Ethiopian side of the border, residents said. The settlement straddles the frontier and also extends into Kenyan territory.
– It was not immediately clear what had started the fighting in parts of the town in the south of Ethiopia’s Oromiya region. Officials there were not immediately reachable for comment.
– “We have hundreds of people from Ethiopia, mainly children and women,” the commissioner from Kenya’s Marsabit county, Stanley Kamande, told Reuters.
– “Many are staying with relatives and well-wishers in several villages at Moyale side Kenya,” he added.
– The Kenya Red Cross said it was conducting an assessment to work out how many people were affected and what their needs were.
– “No camp is ready to host those displaced but we shall most definitely work on it,” Red Cross official Ibrae John said.
– The fighting broke out hundreds of miles away, on the other side of Ethiopia, from a conflict in the northern Tigray region between government forces and a rebel alliance led by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front.