At least 13 Ethiopians were killed and three others seriously injured in recent attacks along the Ethiopia-Kenya borders, APA learnt on Wednesday.
Eyewitnesses told APA that the attack was made in retaliation over the killings of at least 20 Kenyan fishermen who were shot dead Saturday night by suspected Ethiopian militiamen in the Todonyang border area along Lake Turkana in northwestern Kenya.
In a press statement issued on Monday, Tadele Hatte, Dassenech district chief administrator, said the heavily armed militia from the Todonyang area of Kenya raided Dassenech district and killed at least 13 people and wound three others.
Noting that an “organised and armed Turkana militia group who have infiltrated the Ethiopian border have carried out a series of attacks in various areas” bordering Dassenech district, the official said the attacks over the past few days have “caused extensive damage in the area.” Local authorities said the armed attacks also displaced thousands of civilians.
The district administrator said the attackers also took six fishing boats and more than 120 fishing nets. He said cash and other properties were also looted from the local trading community.
Ethiopia’s Dassenech community share traditional socio-economic relations with Kenya’s Turkana society.
Members of the two communities have in the past fought skirmishes over fishing and other economic activities.
MG/as/APA